Open letter from Italy to the international scientific community

Re:Open letter from Italy to the international scientific co... by furyofantares on Saturday March 14, 2020 @09:04PM (#22580187)

Only 150 cases in AU at the time Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got it. Only a thousand in the US when two NBA players got it. Only 150 in Canada when the Prime Minister's wife got it. Only 150 cases in Brazil when the press secretary got it.

These people certainly have more exposure to other humans than most people do. But not so much that they should be making up whole percentages of the infected population. I believe they are just well connected and wealthy and it's easier for them to get tested.

You can't have confirmed cases without testing. I've come to believe these confirmed case numbers may be having a negative effect on our understanding of the situation.

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Re:Open letter from Italy to the international scientific co... by nostromo on Saturday March 14, 2020 @09:15PM (#22580249)

There are two sides of that coin.

One side: it's much more widespread than we realize.

Other side: it's much more mild and less fatal than we first thought.

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Re:Open letter from Italy to the international scientific co... by goatlover on Saturday March 14, 2020 @09:37PM (#22580380)

A third side is a majority of the infections are still early stage, as was the case in Italy a couple weeks ago.

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Re:Open letter from Italy to the international scientific co... by tunesmith on Saturday March 14, 2020 @10:36PM (#22580734)

At the Friday press conference, they said that the LabCorp / LabQuest tests were testing about 2% positive. I don't have much of an insight to this, but isn't that weirdly low if it's truly everywhere? Especially if you factor in the limited testing and that testing will only be given to the more urgent high risk cases. 98% are just something else like the cold or the flu, or a false negative.

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Re:Open letter from Italy to the international scientific co... by zapita on Saturday March 14, 2020 @10:21PM (#22580651)

You’re assuming all deaths caused by Coronavirus are correctly identified as such. Sadly that’s almost guaranteed to not be the case.

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Re:Open letter from Italy to the international scientific co... by rjtavares on Sunday March 15, 2020 @07:39AM (#22582878)

The fatality number is irrelevant. We know it overwhelms health systems, and there's no ICU capacity to handle it.

That's all you need tk knoe.

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