Originally posted by Wheatfield My math might be off, but the USA, the country that is handling the pandemic about as poorly as is possible has a 1.78% death rate, and an overall mortality of .153%. This presumes accurate information from the CDC, which also presumes states like Florida and Texas are reporting accurately, which they probably aren't.
I was talking to an ICU nurse a couple of weeks ago. She has been working 12 hour days with few breaks since the pandemic came to town in a big way early last summer (we were fortunate in that we got off to a late start).
She indicated that what she would like more than anything else is more than 12 hours off at a time, and indicated that anyone who doubts that there really is a pandemic should visit a hospital for a quick education.
---------- Post added Feb 25th, 2021 at 12:00 PM ----------
The crime against humanity is being perpetrated by the covidiots who are insisting it is their right to endanger the lives of those around them.
I think the CDC assumes that are two to three infections for every person who actually tests positive -- some of them are people who have symptoms and just choose not to get tested and some are people who don't have symptoms to speak of. That's why they say in the US there is about a 0.7 percent infection to fatality ratio. But you are right that if you take the number of deaths (520,000) divided by the number of positive cases (29 million) you get 1.8 percent case fatality.
It is really clear that if you have an older population you will do worse (that's why a lot of the developing world has been spared) and if you have hospitals that are overwhelmed (as was the case in New York last spring and LA this winter) death rates probably go up quite a bit too.
I guess I know too many people who have been hospitalized or have had family members pass from it to think this is "just a flu bug." But maybe if you have a small circle of younger friends you get the impression that it isn't a big deal.