I agree on the normal death rate of about 240 a day in Wuhan. But - I read another article/twitter/whatever that some crematorium guy said they were doing 4 to 5 times as many cremations in a day than normal. Of course, he might have been posting from Boston in his mom’s basement too.
Although the lockdown of 400+ million people in China supports the idea that MANY more people are sick and dying than the official numbers say.
Again, I am sure that they are cremating more than normal, due to the virus... IE Folks who would normally have just been buried are being cremated because they are unsure of cause of death or being overly cautious.
Is the death rate really higher?
IE, if you find someone dead and alone in their apartment, and you aren’t dealing with an outbreak would they be cremated? Or just buried? Now, I am going to bet dollars to donuts they are far more likely to be cremated than they were otherwise.
Again, I am NOT saying the outbreak is not worse than being reported, it may very well be, but CONTEXT matters.. and simply saying hey more cremations are happening than usual (in and of itself) with no other data and context around it, does not mean that you can draw that conclusion simply from that claim.