People who were never “infected” or who were never ill?
I would think the case fatality rate would be measured across people who are confirmed to have had the virus (whatever that virus is.)
Keep in mind that the normal flu CFR is base almost entirely on “estimates.” They estimate the deaths way, way after the fact. They estimate the infection rates. All of it is as clear as mud.
Also, I should remind you that people counting cases and deaths in this whole mess are merely counting raindrops—they are missing the entire picture: Economic, lost jobs, destroyed hospitals, and the complete dismissal of other pretty serious medical conditions.
I recall writing way back in February that this was the first pandemic/epidemic in a social media world. It was going to be made much more dramatic than it is.
Sure if you are a fat, elderly, diabetic you should take this whole thing very seriously. If you are 30 and in decent shape...you should take basic precautions, but you won’t probably get ill and you almost certainly (99+%) won’t die.
And 20 years ago, how did you confirm a totally asymptomatic case?
YOU DIDN'T!
You couldn't without a PCR test. Mass PCR testing of individuals who weren't frankly sick simply wasn't available.
Only people with full blow cases who were sick enough to see a doctor ever got counted in the denominator.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY we are counting people who were never, ever actually sick with a given disease in the denominator to calculate that disease's fatality rate.
There can be no meaningful comparison to any historical pandemic from this point on.