"I wish western world central banks were as competent."
Well...
"Western world central banks tend to pressure prices down during economic shocks by withholding liquidity."
Well, we have seen gigantic quantitative easing in the US and the EU and also in China. Inflation - I assume that is what you mean by "pressure prices down" - keeps elusive. Japan has tried for decades to create inflation.
The only thing that the central banks in the world have managed is to create a gigantic asset bubble, via the so called "asset price inflation". They basically build a cash pipeline to all the asset holders. Make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Well, you failed. Interest rates are historically low. We have seen a gigantic amount of liquidity injected over the last decades.
"The poor are much much more hurt by overly tight money."
What is the most expensive acquisition in their life for the majority of the people? Real Estate. Prices are through the roof thanks to the central banks. Young people are just getting priced out of the market.
Prices of houses may be high but affordability is not because of cheap financing. Payments could have been made lower with easier money and even cheaper financing. Asset prices are bounded by the cost of producing new houses and also, high house prices create good jobs for house builders.
"Prices of houses may be high but affordability is not because of cheap financing."
A 7 fig house still costs 7 figures. In many countries you can not lock in the interest rates for 30 years but they get re-adjusted after 10 or 15 years. Could be a bad awakening for some.
"Asset prices are bounded by the cost of producing new houses"
1. "asset prices" are not only houses. But also Stocks for example
2. The most expensive thing is most of the time not the house but the land. "Buy land, they stopped making it! - Mark Twain"
The cost of owning a house includes the cost of financing, you can't get around that.
Stocks can also be created.
Land is a hard one. We have no choice but to share it somehow. But overly tight money is really really not the way to make land affordable. Reducing land prices through overly tight money is basically price control through making people too unemployed and too poor to have demand for land. It's an exceptionally destructive approach.
"Is that a universal truth, or is it historical? Situational?"
It it experience based on historical data. A virus jumping to a new host (species) will be more aggressive in the beginning until it has adopted (mutated) to his new host.
While this is not a universal truth, it is experience and could also be backed up mathematically (>host dies to soon, virus can not spread) and by game theory.
Quote "One European study in 2008 found a 66% vaccine efficacy (VE) against confirmed influenza for children aged 9 months to 3 years, while a Japanese study of children aged 6 months to 6 years found VE against influenza A ranged from 42% to 69% depending on the vaccine match"
"I suspect that “chance of dying” varies based on treatment, "
I doubt this. WHile this may be true for a known disease, we have to ask, how much can the hospital do in this cases? It is a little bit like HIV in the beginning. Watch them die?
Interestingly, China is trying HIV medications on the infected.
One of the main causes of death of the new coronavirus seems to be Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). This can be treated fairly effectively with ventilation, but such treatment would obviously require a bed, ventilation system, and attentive nurses, at the very least. It's easy to imagine how these requirements may currently not be met for all patients with ARDS symptoms in Wuhan.
Ah. Found it: https://tech.michaelaltfield.net/2020/01/02/buskill-laptop-k...