WHO Says Coronavirus Death Rate Is 3.4% Globally, Higher Than Previously Thought

CNBC ^ | Tuesday, March 3, 2020 | Berkeley Lovelace, Jr. and Noah Higgins-Dunn

[kristinn]

World health officials said Tuesday the case fatality rate for COVID-19 is 3.4% globally, higher than previous estimates of about 2%.

“Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva. In comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected, he said.

...During a press briefing Monday, WHO officials said they don’t know how COVID-19 behaves, saying it’s not like influenza. They added that while much is known about the seasonal flu, such as how it’s transmitted and what treatments work to suppress the disease, that same information is still in question when it comes to the coronavirus.

[aquila48]

Who says?

[Uncle Miltie]

Cool. Glad we got to the same page.

Frankly, given most of these are Chinese “statistics”, I don’t trust the numerator or denominator data.

Next, what happens in the U.S. where people are healthier, there is less smoking, pollution is lower, and the health care system is better? I know the answer to that: We’ll have a much lower contraction and death rate than did China.

So, I’m not so much focused on the quantity of dead people in the U.S. (though as a Jewish guy, we’re all 100% equally valuable in the eyes of G-d), but rather the supply chain and societal freak-out factors. I’m really close to ground zero in a lower economic town (Tacoma), and if things go badly, we go all Rodney King Riots really fast. So that’s where my eyes are.

[DoodleBob]

Thank you. While this is true, the curren CFR (deaths / confirmed cases) takes into account cases that haven't resolved.

If you take the data on resolved cases only into account, i.e. Deaths / (Deaths + Resolutions), per Johns Hopkins as of now, you get 3,160 dead and 48,226 recovered = 6.07%

For comparison, per the CDC, the numbers for the flu in 2017-2018 were 61k dead and 810k hospitalized or 7.5%.

Now, of course coronavirus is ongoing and the prior flu season is finished. But quotients are quotients.

Of course people should be prepared. But these quotients aren't pointing to TEOTWAWKI.

Its also worth noting, the CFR has been trending up lately, possibly due to a slowdown in case designations due to a dearth of kits. Or maybe it IS getting deadlier. But...where was The Who when the CFR was lower...are we getting fooled again?

[LouieFisk]

“The CDC
Johns Hopkins
BNO News
Worldometers”
—
Only one of those (CDC) is any kind of official governmental agency that is tasked with collecting info (and that’s for the US). The others are a private hospital and two Twitter accounts. None of them are responsible for accumulating worldwide statistics. The CDC, for better or worse, is the only global agency tasked with monitoring health & health info.

[Grampa Dave]

Latest real data as of today: Not a wet dream fabrication from “panicked lost souls”:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[Sarah Barracuda]

Countries that have crappy health care systems(Like the ones the commies want here in the US) of course the death rate will be higher..In Israel, not ONE death so far from coronavirus, 12 cases, all who returned from Italy, but zero deaths thank God

[jstolzen]

It’s been 3.4 - 3.5% for a couple of weeks now, for anyone that cares to do basic division.

[dfwgator]

But...where was The Who when the CFR was lower...are we getting fooled again?

This is no social crisis, it's just another Tricky Day, for you.

[Vermont Lt]

The only death rate I care about is zero, or 100%.

The CFR is going to fluctuate a lot. We won’t really know until it’s done.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this reality. I have been asking this question for about a month.

“The article is nonsense. How can they know the death rate when they have yet to determine how many have contracted this virus? Answer is they cannot.”

The real tests from CDC have started arriving this week.

Even then, apparent cases of the virus will be labeled: Presumed, not actual cases.

[proust]

As I said, WHO seems to have data the rest of us haven’t been privy to. They almost double the mortality rate without any explanation or details.

[Vermont Lt]

There have been worldwide stats released on this every day.

WHO is in China now, so they may be pulling stats from the hospitals.

The issue is that a lot of people appear to have died outside the hospital and they aren’t counted.

It’s been in Korea for a couple of weeks. We should start seeing the death toll rise there as it lags the test by 10-14 days. Then we will see some accurate numbers.

[dfwgator]

Been saying all along as Korea goes, we’ll go.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this reality. I have been asking this question for about a month.

“The article is nonsense. How can they know the death rate when they have yet to determine how many have contracted this virus? Answer is they cannot.”

The real tests from CDC have started arriving this week.

Even then, apparent cases of the virus will be labeled: Presumed, not actual cases.

How reliable are S Korea’s drive thru tests?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/asia/coronavirus-drive-through-south-korea-hnk-intl/index.html

h

[calenel]

I really haven’t encountered many scared people. Most are going about their lives or calmly prepping. Certainly nobody freaking out even as much as the ‘but flu’ crowd.

[Vermont Lt]

Good evening,

As a point of discussion: the thing that got a lot of our attention a few weeks ago was the absolute brutality associated with the shut down in China. The blockades were pretty dramatic. Locking people down like that would never work in the USA.

They literally locked down half of their country. The complete shut down of their manufacturing and transport systems for more than a month now is certainly concerning.

So, if you are asking why eyebrows have been raised...that is one answer.

The largest social/civilian lockdown in human history will get some attention.

Most people don’t know that happened. They are coming late to the show and they freak out.

[TexasGator]

“Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died”

Most cases aren’t reported.

Who, after hiding this from us for weeks now wants some of our billion$.

[lastchance]

Globally means it is that high in some places and not in others.

[calenel]

But in some places they are really on top of the cases and can give actual totals for infected rather than just assuming some arbitrary percentage of cases go unnoticed. They can apply those statistics to the places where they are not screening and get an idea of the total number of afflicted.

Or, maybe they are getting real numbers out of China, now.

[FreeReign]

WHO Says Coronavirus Death Rate Is 3.4%...

I don't know. Who?