Rather, This disease would actually be a lot more scary if the case count was based on a random testing as in Iceland, but it isn't. It's only usually those who have symptoms - who are most likely to have it:
In some places, only healthcare workers and the most seriously ill patients are getting tested for the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. - https://www.healthline.com/health-news/doctors-limit-who-gets-covid-tests
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/doctors-limit-who-gets-covid-tests
The Real Reason Veterinarians Gave a Tiger a Covid-19 Test ... www.wired.com › story › tiger-coronavirus-bronx-zoo 1 day ago - It's hard for humans in New York City to get a test for the coronavirus. So when a Bronx Zoo tiger tested positive for Covid-19, it invited some questions
US nurses who can't get tested fear they are spreading COVID www.reuters.com › article › us-health-coronavirus-usa-nurses › u-s-n... 5 days ago - In New York City, an intensive care nurse treated patients for three days after she started displaying symptoms of COVID-19 - but couldn't get a test ...
Why can’t I just get tested for the Coronavirus? There are many complex and moving parts when it comes to getting tested for COVID-19. ..Here’s the thing: You currently can’t just ask to be tested. According to the CDC, testing availability and criteria for eligibility (which determines if you can even get a test) differs state to state and then by locality...To get tested, you have to first call your state, local health department, or medical provider to see if you are eligible....Why is it so difficult to get tested? For one, Coronavirus testing in the United States had a rocky rollout, which led to widespread laboratory issues. This created a domino effect that led to chaotic and slower testing throughout the country...In some states, such as New York...they all have to be ordered by a healthcare provider.
This is why you can't get tested for COVID-19 - KOTA www.kotatv.com › content › news › This-is-why-you-cant-get-a-COV.. . 3 days ago - The criteria comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and it stipulates who can and who cannot get a COVID-19 test.
Suggested Commercial Laboratory Specimen Testing Priorities Ill individuals (residents or staff) in congregate living settings (long term care facilities, prisons/jails, homeless shelters, etc.) Ill dialysis patients Ill hospitalized patients Ill health care workers taking care of immunosuppressed patients Ill health care workers and their ill household contacts Ill patients 65 years of age and older Ill patients with underlying medical conditions Ill first responders Ill child care providers https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/hcp/eval.html
Current COVID-19 antibody tests aren't accurate enough for ... www.fiercebiotech.com › medtech › current-covid-19-antibody-tests- ... 5 days ago - Current COVID-19 antibody tests aren't accurate enough for mass screening, say Oxford researchers
When Iceland tested 10% of its population, it found "more than 1600" infections (current number is 1701)--which does not even come close to half of the tested people, much less half of the entire population.
Argue with what I read: Among the Nordic nation's findings: about half of its citizenry at any given time who have coronavirus but don't know it, will be asymptomatic...
Stefansson said Iceland's randomized tests revealed that between 0.3%-0.8% of Iceland's population is infected with the respiratory illness, that about 50% of those who test positive for the virus are asymptomatic when they are tested, - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/04/10/coronavirus-covid-19-small-nations-iceland-big-data/2959797001/
Why the death rate in Iceland is so low--8 deaths, or 0.47%--is unknown. Perhaps the people of Iceland have a variant of the major histocompatibility complex (an immune system component) that makes them less susceptible to the severe effects of the virus.
Why resort to this rather than basing the death rate on the likelihood that positive tests - regardless of symptoms - that result from random testing - with its many asymptomatic cases - rather than those who feel sick, are more likely to have less serious cases and thus are more likely to recover.
And thus it remains that the death rate among positive tests that result from random testing provide a more accurate account it is lethality.
Maybe their health care system is not overwhelmed, so that they can give each seriously ill patient full attention
"Maybe," but for that you need stats that show the % of those getting hospital care and that this results in more recoveries.
Maybe they are overall more healthy than people in other countries where the death rate is higher. Probably a combination of all three.
They are factors, but the more rational is that positive tests that result from random testing, which thus includes both asymptomatic cases and serious one, results in a lower % of positive cases that are serious, and thus less deaths among the total, which results in a more accurate fatality rate.
I have personally seen this “discretionary “ non-testing. This person was showing all the CDC signs plus, had recently returned from overseas from a high cases area. He and his immediate family were forced to 14 days of quarantine, and the powers that be would NOT test him, nor his symptomatic family members (2/5).
It appears to some that THEY didn’t want to know if he had the virus, as this would undermine the narrative.
After the end of the 14 day quarantine he returned to with with several hundred of us “essential personnel”.
Most who have worked with him have now traveled literally to the four winds, to work at other essential sites across the USA and beyond.
This kind of thing has been going on since early- mid December. If this was a pandemic that was going to kill all that are exposed, then the dead would be stacked like cord wood across the world.
A concern for High Risk Persons? Perhaps. Just like pneumonia and other HRP.
Take precautions to the level needed for you and yours. I do, and have every season, and in some locales all the time.
Still not a reason for what has happened. Ebola, SARS and H1N1 showed us that for most of the masses, this is a blip.
Personal experiences may be different however this is mine.