Dear Everyone,
The reason South Korea has so many cases isn’t that they prevented spread.
It’s that they *detected* the spread.
They tested hundreds of thousands of people, including asymptomatic + mild cases.
That’s HOW you do it.
Their death rate (0.6%) is a better estimate— Jeremy Faust MD MS (@jeremyfaust) March 6, 2020
Why are there more deaths from #coronavirus in Italy than South Korea? Our best guess is because 7.5% of Italians are over 80 years old vs 3.6% in Korea. Chinese data show this is the most vulnerable age group. Big implications for Japan, Greece, Germany, + much of EU #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/TS4OvVR9lV— Charlie Robertson (@RencapMan) March 2, 2020
Thank you @RonLin for including me in this piece!
Why does the fatality rate of coronavirus keep changing?
Because of who is getting tested.
When you only test ICU patients, the numbers are high.
When you test *everyone, you get more realistic data.https://t.co/BgRjIcO0iv— Jeremy Faust MD MS (@jeremyfaust) March 7, 2020
Yes, massive testing will cause a short term scare because we’ll detect mild and even symptom-free cases.
But when people see for themselves that for *most, coronavirus is mild (tho *sometimes devastating for older + vulnerable people), it‘ll eventually have the opposite effect. https://t.co/GqqHpyAwRl— Jeremy Faust MD MS (@jeremyfaust) March 7, 2020
According to this - based on the first 21 deaths in Italy - all were elderly https://t.co/O4s8VemyNa— Charlie Robertson (@RencapMan) March 2, 2020