As far as I know some dead people are NEVER tested, while alive or after they pass, even if they are fully believed to have the virus.
In one New York County that was reporting no COVID deaths, a nurse had seen two herself.
I just think the real death numbers are substantially being underreported and we will not have an accurate death toll until we are able to look back and untangle the misreporting and underreporting.
As that Italian report noted, one municipality had like 153 deaths so far this year when they normally have 35, but only 31 deaths are attributed to Corona Virus. We all know the bulk of that difference is Corona virus, but it is going to take time and resources to ultimately suss it out.
You’re not wrong, but Republicans have already planted their flag that guaranteed paid sick leave is un-American, and it’s not like any of our capitalist overlords who aren’t already on board with paid sick leave are going to start tossing it about like candy now. Bunker for me, back to work for thee.
This is why when it is compared to the regular flu it is so far off base. The regular flu doesn’t require as much intensive care per patient as Covid seems to me. I could be wrong and I know during flu season bed utilization spikes but I suspect the percentage of flu sufferers getting on ventilators is lower than for Covid.
Younger people survive the treatment excellently but so many of those young people would die without access to a ventilator. That is still the most terrifying part.
Last night I had a dream where I talked to a guy for a while and when we were parting he went to shake hands and he had like 14 fingers of wildly different lengths and his hand was the size of a medium pizza. I was like - sorry, coronavirus, not shaking hands.
It’s almost impossible to learn something like this from the data we have. We don’t know confidently which strain or strains are found in any but a handful of patients, we don’t have good enough statistics on hospitalization, death, and infection rates due to under-testing, and we don’t know enough about the biochemistry of the virus to be able to spot particular mutations that might indicate a beneficial adaptation (this is possible with HIV, where many key mutations are known).
It’s an RNA virus. It’s going to have mutation-prone replication. They all do, including HIV and influenza. Its rate looks more like influenza than HIV at this point, which is very good news. Of the mutations, the overwhelming majority are going to either do nothing or harm the virus. We’re not nearly at a point where we can spot a mutation and know that it’s a beneficial one.