05/01/2020 / By Isabelle Z.
Do you remember when the coronavirus outbreak first started? Based on early reports of its symptoms, it was often likened to the flu, and many people assumed it should occupy a similar position on our scale of worries. However, the virus quickly proved just how formidable an opponent it is, killing hundreds of thousands of people around the world and spreading with astonishing ease.
A global survey of deaths from the disease across a handful of countries and cities shows that the virus is actually killing around 10 percent of people who are diagnosed with symptoms. The official number of confirmed deaths is generally used to determine the COVID-19 death rate, but information uncovered by the Financial Times paints what could well be a more accurate picture of just how many people are actually dying from the disease.
For their report, they compared just how many people are dying of all causes, on average, during the coronavirus crisis and compared it to the average deaths from all causes seen in those places studied over the past few years. The difference was substantial, and it’s not a stretch to imagine that most of these extra deaths are coming from the virus itself, especially when you factor in the idea that lockdowns mean far fewer people are dying in traffic and work-related accidents than you would normally see.
What they found was remarkable: a global pattern of 50 percent excess deaths from any cause thanks to the virus. This led them to conclude that the global death toll from the disease should be higher than 300,000, rather than the 200,000 currently used in official death counts. All told, they found 122,000 extra deaths in the places studied.
To reach their conclusion, they studied countries like England, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, and the Netherlands, along with urban areas such as New York City, Madrid, the Bergamo province of Italy, and Guayas, Ecuador.
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, wrote recently on Natural News that the new figures show the Case Fatality Rate for COVID-19 is likely higher than 10 percent. We have 3 million confirmed infections right now, and even assuming all of them are symptomatic and therefore fit the definition of a “case” for calculation purposes, the 300,000 global deaths would mean that the disease’s Case Fatality Rate is more than 10 percent.
This is the percentage of people who will die after becoming symptomatic and getting diagnosed with the disease. And when you compare it to the same metric for the flu, which kills 0.1 percent of people who are symptomatic, you‘ll see that the coronavirus is 100 times deadlier than the flu based on this calculation.
If you find that statistic scary, you’re not alone. The point of sharing it isn’t to upset people – it’s to show what could happen should we end lockdowns too early and without putting the right protections in place.
A lot of people are seriously underestimating the dangers posed by COVID-19, and it’s understandable that many of us are eager to get back to our pre-pandemic routines. But when you notice a 50 percent surge in global deaths, it’s clear that a second, even deadlier wave of infections could arise if we don’t take this threat seriously.
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Tagged Under: Case Fatality Rate, coronavirus, covid-19, death toll, deaths, excess mortality, Fatalities, Flu, infections, outbreak, pandemic, research, statistics, virus
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