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A comment on Coronavirus – The Outlook Has Worsened. Parent comment

Re:Coronavirus – The Outlook Has Worsened by prepend on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @07:38AM (#22355504)
> You can't compute fatality rates simply by deaths/recoveries, because recoveries lag deaths by several weeks (once you're dead you're dead, but if you survive it takes a few weeks to recover and start testing negative).

There are limitations with this method, but I think it’s the best possible at the time. What method do you think is better?

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Re:Coronavirus – The Outlook Has Worsened by 9nGQluzmnq3M on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @07:41AM (#22355534)
Count deaths & recoveries a few weeks in for cohorts that showed first symptoms on the same days. But data collection for this is hard and it takes a while too.
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Re:Coronavirus – The Outlook Has Worsened by prepend on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @07:14AM (#22364836)
This is mentioned in the article and is more accurate, but isn’t possible throughout an outbreak for the reason you state.
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Re:Coronavirus – The Outlook Has Worsened by joosters on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @07:41AM (#22355527)
You could count the number of deaths by date 'n', compared to the number of recoveries by date 'n+14', say, picking a date related to the average recovery time?
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Re:Coronavirus – The Outlook Has Worsened by prepend on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @07:17AM (#22364845)
The recovery date isn’t fixed so there’s not a single “+14” that is as useful as picking the dead / known outcome.

I think this is because it’s hard to know date of infection, but it’s definite to know whether the case resulted in death or has been determined “recovered.”

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