Preliminary results showed that the coronavirus had infected about 3% of the Indiana's population, or 188,000 people.
"That 188,000 people represented about 11 times more people than conventional selective testing had identified in the state to that point," Menachemi says.
And 45% of the infected people reported having no symptoms at all.
For Menachemi and his team, it was like finally getting a glimpse of the entire coronavirus iceberg, instead of just the part above the water.
And the data allowed them to calculate something called the infection fatality rate — the odds that an infected person will die. Previously, scientists had relied on what's known as the case fatality rate, which calculates the odds that someone who develops symptoms will die.
Indiana's infection fatality rate turned out to be about 0.58%, or roughly one death for every 172 people who got infected.
And the results in Indiana are similar to those suggested by antibody studies in several other areas. In New York, for example, an antibody study indicated the state has an infection fatality rate around 0.5%.
Studies in Florida and California have suggested even lower fatality rates, but the results are less certain, Rivers says.
"They may have enrolled people who are more likely to have been infected than would be ideal," she says, which would lead to an overestimate of infections and an underestimate of the infection fatality rate.
An antibody study in Santa Clara County, Calif., used Facebook ads to find participants — a tactic unlikely to attract a random sample. Also antibody studies become less accurate when conducted in areas where the prevalence of infections is low.
Boy. Thank God we didn’t shut down the country and wreck the economy and add 6 trillion debt :)
I think the economy will come back much more quickly than the dour estimates (10 year nonsense).
But it cost us a lot to lock down over something that kills 1 in app. 170 people, and if you protect the elderly, probably even less.
Someone or more than one in my family must have had it without knowing. Because I still know no one who has had it and the folks I know don’t know anybody who has had it.
500 or more people. Some of us must have had it. Just didn’t get sick
Translation: we have been lied to for the sake of removing Trump and imposing draconian fiats to insure the left never loses.
Ping.
For later reading