He writes,’... but(covid) infects far fewer people than influenza (3% vs. 15%)’.
That may be accurate if all things were equal between the flu and covid, but the covid number is with all of the mitigation we have done. What would the number be and practically speaking how would have it played out if there was no mitigation? I think we got a glimpse by looking at a congested area like New York. And that probably would have been what more areas looked like if nothing was done. And perhaps then there would have been the same mitigation done except after many, many more were infected.
Trump did the right, courageous thing and the more (especially at places like FR) that buy into the spin that undoubtedly will now surface, the less the chances of Trump winning in November.
That may be accurate if all things were equal between the flu and covid, but the covid number is with all of the mitigation we have done.
Actually, at this time there is no way to know what the infection rate really is.
All test up to this time has been on people suspected of having COVID-19 based on presented symptoms.
The only way to have any idea what the true infection rate in the population is, is to have random testing in the general population. Without random testing we can have no idea what the hospitalization rate is or the morbidity rate.
As things stand, we can only corollate morbidity with hospitalization. This is only useful for telling decision makers how well treatment protocols are in saving lives (if they are followed).
My opinion, for what it’s worth, is start random testing ASAP so we can get on with restarting the economy.
Probably the best data to look at today is these cruise ships that had people bottled up with the virus for months. If they test 100% of the passengers and crew we can get some idea of the infection rate, hospitalization rate and morbidity rate.