Today’s brief update will simply be about some simple numbers and some simple math.
Let’s say 100 people catch Covid-19… and struggle through it, till they’re either cured or dead… if 93 survived and 7 died, let’s write it down as 93/7. Looking around the world, here’s a brief sample of how that looks in different places:
United States: 95/5
China: 95/5
Canada: 93/7
Mexico: 87/13
Italy: 86/14
It’s annoying that some places have stopped publishing their recovery numbers. I’d be interested in throwing Sweden, U.K. and Spain into that mix to see how they compare.
The best ratios out there seem to come out, at best, 97/3.
If we just add up the entire planet — there have been almost exactly 30,000,000 cases – and the global ratio is 96/4.
The implication of that is that the true potential extent of this virus, should everyone on the planet get it, would mean a little over 300,000,000 deaths; simply 4% of the world’s 7.8 billion people.
Fortunately, there’s every reason to believe… through social practices and herd immunity (one way or the other), that nothing close to that will end up transpiring. But it’s always worthwhile to look at all the scenarios, and as far as the worst-case goes – there you have it.
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This is frightening enough as written, but ignores what is becoming more evident. That of the 96 survivors, a not insignificant number will have long term (potentially lifelong) effects, some of which will be debilitating.
Either Herd Immunity, or “Herd Mentality”. One of the two.
Sadly, I’m wearing my mask around my kids at home. With them in school, I’m feeling uneasy about things. It’s a nutso time on the planet but I’m determined to keep faith and hope for better days ahead. Sending love to la familia amigo ????????????
I agree with this but I do think the ratio is a lot better because a lot of cases get missed. Our live-in nanny had a very mild sore throat and got herself tested out of an abundance of caution, and we were all stunned when she tested positive (and then we went into a strict daily-follow up with the authorities quarantine)… many with symptoms so mild wouldn’t have bothered getting tested, plus there’s the asymptomatic cases. Fortunately I think this level of worst case is theoretical, but of course that still doesn’t mean we can be lax about it!
I suspect you’re off by an order of magnitude, but 30 million is still an awful number. The infection fatality rate was initially thought to be close to 4% but it’s now closer to 0.6% as diagnosis grows the denominator and better therapies reduce the numerator.
I only hope that the current slower rate of spread (80ish days for cases to double worldwide) will allow a future vaccine to catch up.
I think you mean “herd mentality.”
Greg Hopper, we don’t know one another and this is the wrong platform to support Horatio’s running dialogue with you, so I will leave this as a fundamental refutation of whatever “POV” and perspective you are seeking from him, knowing you won’t be moved.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/09/15/scientific-american-joe-biden/?outputType=amp
Keawta Suksri