Covid-19 crisis Are deaths from the Wuhan virus being deliberately underreported?
There is a post being circulated widely stating that the crematoria in China are working full time to cremate the bodies of victims of the Wuhan virus so as to underreport the actual impact. 

I do not know if it was accompanied by a video showing how busy the crematoria are, and an interview with a worker who confirmed that the crematorium is indeed working at full steam. 

Without the actual statistics, I believe that there is some truth in the statement. But it is only partially true.

Each year, without the Wuhan virus, more than 10 million people die in China. Most of them have to be cremated. I would suspect that the crematoria, in ordinary times, would be quite busy disposing of the bodies. 

During the winter months (and right now it is winter in China), I would expect the crematoria to be more busy than usual. Maybe they have to operate on longer than normal hours. More people do die from the cold during the winter months.

Are some of the deceased being reported as dying from cold, rather than Wuhan virus? Maybe. Right now, it is quite difficult to distinguish if an elderly person had died from the virus or from other causes. There is a shortage of test kits.

But I do not expect that there is any deliberate attempt to underreport the actual deaths from the Wuhan crisis. In the well connected world today (remember WeChat is very popular in China), it would be difficult to hide the fact, if indeed there was deliberate underreporting. 

Many people in Singapore are genuinely concerned that the Wuhan epidemic can become much worse than now. (The stock of face masks have run out in the retail stores.) I understand their concern. They may be right. So, if they wish to wear a face mask and wash their hands 50 times a day, go ahead. 

For me, I will still not wear a mask and will wash my hands as usual. I will change my habit when the number of infected people increase exponentially in China and other countries and there is a large increase in people who drop dead. I will monitor the situation closely.

I will continue to monitor the situation and form my judgment based on the developments that are being reported daily from various sources from China and the international media and from the social media.

I have to decide how much of each source of information to believe. The spread of fake news is quite rampant today.

Tan Kin Lian

Vote - should we make our judgment rationally on the news that are being spread?
 

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