N. Korea jumps from reporting zero covid cases to 1.2 million in 72 hours

[Tanuki]

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypnpy/north-korea-zero-covid-to-12-million-cases

This time last week, North Korea was still claiming to be one of three COVID-free countries worldwide. Now it’s facing a public health catastrophe.
....
But Thursday saw state media confirm that an “obscure febrile disease” had infected 350,000 people nationwide, in what experts believe is almost certainly an outbreak of COVID-19. Then, three days later, state media confirmed a total of more than 1.2 million people across the country reporting symptoms of a “fever.” 

As of Sunday, 564,860 people are being treated for this “fever,” which appears to have been spreading explosively throughout North Korea since late April. At least 50 people are confirmed to have died, eight of them on Sunday alone, in what is almost certainly a gross underestimate of mortalities by local authorities. One expert told VICE World News last week he expects “mass death” to occur. 
...
In the space of just 72 hours, North Korea’s epidemiological status has shifted from a self-proclaimed success story to a public health catastrophe. Given the so-called hermit kingdom’s notorious secrecy and extremely limited testing capacity, the exact case numbers are impossible to quantify, and these official figures almost certainly represent the low end of the scale."...(more)

[nolabear]

1. God, those poor people. This is what authoritarianism gets you.

Authoritarians live in a power fueled delusion that “I alone can fix it.” They cannot imagine that those “others” are anything but challenges to their power and godlike status. Other countries aren’t potential allies, resources, sharers of resources and knowledge. And so when their help is desperately needed theees nothing in place, no route or system that the community of nations has, however imperfect.

Those poor people are dying in droves and I fear it won’t get better any time soon.

And I fear that perspective could drive America all too far in that direction. We are an advanced country to be sure, but keep otherizing the rest of the world, keep minimizing the authoritarianism, and we will suffer.

[RKP5637]

2. It will probably be massive, with no end in sight. n/t

[gratuitous]

3. Has the former guy offered to help?

Or are he and Kim no longer in love?

[Journeyman]

4. Kim Jong-un must be pleased. Everyone's even getting sick in lockstep . . .

[patphil]

5. I imagine a lot of the North Koreans who thought they had Covid were afraid to report it.

And those that did wish they hadn't.
The little fat boy's government decreed no Covid, so that's what you report.
It must be really bad for the government to be forced to admit it.

[Frasier Balzov]

6. The NK government has decided that this is a way to evade sanctions.

Vaccine and masks will be sent on a humanitarian basis, and caviar and Courvoisier can come along for the ride.