Dudes can I get a straight answer from anyone?
The sentences you are responding to were my questions about Italy, not the United States. So far, I got one sarcastic comment.
Are there credible news stories of Italian hospitals letting people die and not having enough ventilators, doctors getting sick and patients going untreated?
The actual news stories I see are about public events and tourist sites being closed and about the numbers of cases and deaths, but not hospitals in panic or even triage crisis. What’s the answer?
I don’t know about Italy. But it sounds like they are a basket case and should not be part of any mean (average). There is a rumor that they are not treating people over 65, but I have no idea if true. The link below seems to confirm the rumor.
I know that whatever they are doing, they are doing wrong. their death rate is insane.
https://www.businessinsider.com/prioritizing-covid-19-patients-based-age-likely-wont-fly-us-2020-3
You may have addressed this one already, but am posting it here for reference.
I can try to give you something straight. The key to epidemiology is the virology. If they are having twice the death rate of Wuhan in the early stages 3.7% you ought to be able to look at the germ and show why.
The virus kills three ways co-morbity, viral pneumonia and cytokine storm/septic shock. Some families/gene pools over produce the ACE2 receptor. Some families over produce the helper-2 t-cell. This is why it was important to know who is dying. Air pollution in Wuhan and 30 years of smoking coincides with an abundance of those receptors in the lungs and gut. Italy? What is going on there?
I have not seen the supporting data from Italy. I do not see anything in the germ to make it that lethal. Asian smokers over age 60 makes a lot of sense and matches the virology. If you only count the cases 80 years and older the CFR is 14.9%. Put everybody in the count and you get 1%. New England Journal of Medicine says <1%. Korean data suggested .87 cfr. This matches the virology/pathogenicity of HCoV-19/SARS-CoV-2.
Thank you in advance for any links or any contradiction from anyone at all but especially those who know the science. Flutracker is excellent. I am with John’s Hopkins on this. Thanks!