03-10-2020, 08:19 AM
I'm actually going to side with Trump on this, kind of. The mortality rate of this thing is being far overblown because of confirmation bias in how we have tested, even in the limited testing we have done. We generally have only tested the very sick and it would logically make sense that those who are very sick have a higher chance of death than those who show absolutely no symptoms at all. I was reading yesterday that outside of Italy, who apparently their are some questions about how they are testing, other countries that are testing at a much higher rate are showing far lower mortality rates (below 2%) because the sampling better reflects the high rate of carriers who show little to no symptoms from the disease.
Now is it still as low as the flu? No. However, the thing I read yesterday was essentially saying that the current rates in other developed countries who test at a higher rate are MUCH closer to flu than other corona viruses we have seen in the past like SARS or MERS. I still believe that this overreaction is doing far more harm than good and is another result of the endless 24 hour news cycle. I was around for H1N1 and I don't remember a literal counter talking about each new case or death, it's almost like we want to think we are in a dooms day scenario.
Now is it still as low as the flu? No. However, the thing I read yesterday was essentially saying that the current rates in other developed countries who test at a higher rate are MUCH closer to flu than other corona viruses we have seen in the past like SARS or MERS. I still believe that this overreaction is doing far more harm than good and is another result of the endless 24 hour news cycle. I was around for H1N1 and I don't remember a literal counter talking about each new case or death, it's almost like we want to think we are in a dooms day scenario.