[Taxacom] Only 4 deaths from COVID-19 in Hong Kong (antibodies from other coronaviruses??)

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi All,
      I have been very surprised that Hong Kong has continued to have had so few deaths (only four) from COVID-19 disease.  And I was also surprised to find a warning online that there were two suspected cases in Hong Kong of the related MERS coronavirus in the first week of January 2020.  That was three weeks before 5 cases of COVID-19 were reported and the State of Emergency declared.  Perhaps those suspected MERS cases were actually COVID-19.
      And I was very surprised to learn that only a little over 1,300 people have been tested for MERS in the United States.  Could outbreaks of MERS coronavirus in the United States since 2014 therefore have gone undetected?  Healthy soldiers and others from the Middle East without underlying medical conditions could have become carriers.   Is MERS really as fatal as general thought?  With so little testing, how can we know?
      And if populations in Hong Kong and South Korea have had undetected outbreaks of MERS, could MERS antibodies or even SARS-1 antibodies (since 2003) be keeping the deaths from COVID-19 relatively low even though they are so close to China?  Or is it their heightened awareness and preparations that is the major factor.  Hong Kong never issued a Stay-at-Home Order, and still they have had only 4 deaths.   Question:  Do we yet know if MERS or SARS-1 antibodies offer any protection against COVID-19?
      It certainly would be interesting to know what happened to those 2 suspected cases of MERS in Hong Kong the first week of January 2020:   https://www.vaxbeforetravel.com/visitors-middle-east-should-abstain-direct-contact-camels

Limited MERS testing in the USA:  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/us.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------