Jessica Gonzalez said:Maybe if you look at the numbers, Vietnam has nearly 100 million people, and fewer than 6 million of them are over the age of 65. On the other hand, Italy has about 60 million residents, but over 13 million are seniors. In a place like Vietnam, even if some people get sick, the population recovers quickly through growth, whereas in Italy, the population would likely shrink by over 200,000 this year alone due to natural causes, even without the virus. I guess what we're seeing is just a sudden shock from a new virus—which is mostly harmless to young people—hitting a population that is heavily weighted toward the elderly. There isn't really a way around that, other than isolating the seniors or finding ways to protect them. The high number of elderly citizens is really just a byproduct of how much living standards have improved over the last century, but today, that same progress is why the death toll from COVID looks so high.
Right now, the elderly are definitely the most vulnerable group. If you want a comparison, the only other pandemic comparable to COVID is the Spanish Flu—and that virus actually mutated after circulating for a while into a strain that triggered such an intense immune response in younger people that even the strongest, healthiest individuals could die within hours because their own immune systems overreacted so violently.
ruggedjackal46 said:Just thought I'd brighten up restlesssurfer97's day by digging into how Vietnam handled the pandemic. It's a relatively modest nation right next to China, yet they managed to clock zero deaths. Pretty wild, right?
The country started developing tests almost immediately after IT confirmed in January that Three People traveling Back fra Wuhan
Vietnam followed a pretty logical testing roadmap: they started by screening travelers, then pivoted to testing their close contacts, and eventually expanded to anyone showing symptoms similar to COVID.
They really leaned into mass testing. To put things in perspective, they ran 966 tests for every single confirmed case. Compare that to Taiwan at 149 or New Zealand at 132. Meanwhile, over here in the USA, we're sitting at 6, and the UK is at 5. We aren't even playing the same game.
Then there's this:
Those found to be sick, whether at the airport or elsewhere, were placed in quarantine facilities for 14 days, free of charge. Self-isolation at home isn’t permitted in Vietnam, as the government worries those with the disease might give it to their family members.
And finally:
It also helps that the public has received and accepted what health officials tell them, as many abide by the government’s guidelines like social distancing and mask wearing. That only makes the country’s broader response easier.
The bottom line? 288 confirmed cases, 233 recoveries, and zero deaths. They've even got schools reopening and the economy starting to stir again.
Asian countries really learned their lesson from SARS—which was way more lethal than COVID—so they moved incredibly fast and decisively.
What a total classic. This takes me right back to the days when club-specific threads were strictly forbidden—back when everyone just crowded into one massive MLS discussion thread. What absolute chaos that was...
Kudos to Red Bull—honestly, I hope more teams start winning; it’ll make this season a lot more interesting. My guys absolutely botched the strategy for Nico Rosberg, and there was just nothing we could do for Kazuki Nakajima given how the track kept switching between wet and dry. I really feel for Adrian Sutil, too; he deserved to walk away with a point for once. We haven't actually seen a "normal" race yet this year, so I'm looking forward to a solid one in Bahrain.
It’s going to be a fascinating tactical battle—Fernando Alonso is in the hard compound category, so he'll definitely be the first one hitting the pits. Nico Rosberg really messed up by trying to nail two fast laps back-to-back instead of just focusing on one like everyone else, but since there's a pack of heavy hitters right in front of him, he might still pull off something at the start. Plus, if the rain holds up (and the forecast says it might), anything could happen...
It’s the exact same headache we're seeing with Williams and Nakajima—Rosberg breezes right into Q3, while Nakajima is out here struggling just to make it through Q2... I guess those free engines aren't worth much, then.
Keith Jones19 said:it's a beautiful turn of events 😁 but... does Alonso still have KERS in his car? if we're going to know who takes the lead tomorrow ☕
No, only Ferrari and Nick Heidfeld will be running KERS at tomorrow's race.
I’m counting down the minutes until they release the car weights—if they actually managed to shave off some mass, this race is going to be an absolute blast.
slynomad32 said:And let's be real—if those parts turn out to be illegal, how do you think the Brawn guys would handle it? Their car would probably end up looking like a total wreck🤷
Rubens Barrichello mentioned his diffuser was basically trashed after the first lap in Australia—so clearly, it's not all about the diffuser...
Frank Collins85 said:🙏 Honestly, that was easily the highlight of the entire broadcast from Washington, D.C. ...Man, they really messed up by pushing the schedule back three hours. If they had stuck to the original time, we would've been racing on a dry track, it wouldn't be pitch black right now, and we wouldn't have dealt with all those interruptions...
It was going to rain regardless—it was already coming down around 2 PM... The only difference might have been that the race could have actually finished since it wouldn't have gotten dark out...
They didn't even get a chance to help Kubica—and man, Heidfeld had perfect timing with that red flag since his rain tires basically turned into slicks... A total robbery 🙂
Jeremy Reyes4 said:The FIA is full of absolute idiots. What kind of nonsense is stopping a race just because of some rain? It’s not like these cars are made of sugar. Kimi is the king.
Just listen to what the drivers are saying about how the track conditions actually were:
Nico Rosberg said:"I was out there aquaplaning even with a full set of wets on—it was wild." 19 miles"Honestly? It was a total disaster—I couldn't even keep the car on the pavement. Just ridiculous."
Lewis Hamilton said:Once the rain started pouring, driving became an absolute nightmare. I was aquaplaning all over the place—honestly, those were some of the most dangerous conditions I’ve ever faced on a track.
Sebastian Vettel said:"I was coming up on Turn 7 when the track just opened up with water—it was intense—but I was trying to play it safe," he admitted. "The car just hydroplaned right out from under me; there wasn't a thing I could do about it. There was simply too much standing water, and my tires just weren't built for that kind of mess."
From what I can gather, there was a pretty universal consensus among the drivers that the race should have been red-flagged given how terrible the conditions were...
What an absolutely incredible start from Rosberg! 🙏 🙏 🙏 Honestly, watching that first half was pure adrenaline—constant overtaking and the leaderboard kept shifting every single second without a moment of boredom. And then that downpour hits... man, rain always turns things into a complete lottery where some get lucky and others just get screwed. Two of them were right in the middle of their pit stops when they red-flagged the race; if it had ended just a lap or two later, they probably wouldn't have even scored points. Besides, the track would've likely been soaking wet anyway if they had started at the scheduled time—that IndyCar race was already delayed because of the weather, and they were originally set to go at 1:30 PM...
Personally, I actually find them more attractive this way—"clean," if you will—without all those aerodynamic gimmicks, wings, flaps, bridges, horns, chimneys, and other nonsense. It reminds me of how BMW used to look with all that clutter from the winglets... But honestly, if these changes lead to closer racing and easier overtaking (which looks likely based on what we saw in Australia), then I don't care about aesthetics; I've already gotten used to the new cars over the winter anyway. After a few tests, seeing a Toro Rosso with a massive rear wing just felt weird to me...
🙄The FIA claims they stepped in because Sebastian Vettel basically confessed he was struggling but was hell-bent on keeping his spot.🙄
It’s pathetic. They're actually punishing drivers just for what they say. 😵 Forget the racing, let's all head to the Betting shops—Kimi was clearly the real champ in 2009. 😬 There's zero competition. ☕
So the FIA penalized a driver over a standard racing incident, all because of something Sebastian Vettel said over the Team radio.🙄
I honestly think they penalized him because he didn't pit—instead, he just kept chasing the safety car, clearly hoping he could hang onto his position if the race ended under those conditions. If they had just shown him this, we wouldn't have been left in the dark like that...
stormybadger8 said:Expected☕ total nonsense. Honestly, though, I bet that was a team call—if he'd actually tried to finish the race, he would've been cruising along on three wheels.🤣
And they'll probably nail Robert Kubica with a penalty too.😢
I don't think it'll happen—the investigation covered four different drivers, and they went ahead and released the findings on Jarno Trulli and Sebastian Vettel immediately.
