192K and change cases we know of. We also know that nearly 50% of Covid infected have no symptoms or symptoms so mild one might not know they are sick. Double your number of cases and then tell us the case fatality rate. We also know that dying from Covid and dying with Covid are two completely different things though all are lumped together. Easily cut the death rate in half to get those that actually died from Covid. Actual case fatality rate is probably less than one percent, and then we can throw out the 80 percent who were on their death beds to begin with. Now we're down to a bad flu season which is where the true number has been all along. Happy to have cleared this up for you
Actually, we don’t have a good idea of how many Covid cases are asymptotic with the newer variants. My guess is that as they are a higher contagion, they will also be more symptomatic.
Mortality rate in the US has been under 2% all this year and was dropping rapidly through late 2020, long before the vaccine was available. Not recent. The main driver in reducing the CFR is better therapeutics and understanding the virus.
The Case Fatality Rate is based on the PROVEN cases.... Don't confuse this with the ESTIMATED Infection Fatality Rate which is based on estimated infections. The estimated Infections in countries with reasonable testing capability is 3 infections for every proven COVID case. This number is backed by testing of sewage in cities and other methods. The estimated Infection Fatality Rate in the U.S. for COVID is 0.56% earlier this year. As expected it is one quarter of the Case Fatality Rate. For comparison the Case Fatality Rate for the Flu is 0.1% and the Infection Fatality Rate for the Flu is 0.025%.
Yes, the CFR in the U.S. has dropped over time. It started above 3.4% in in mid-2020 and is now down to 1.78%. This is due to improved therapeutics and treatment -- and more importantly to vaccinations in 2021. The real steep drop in weekly deaths (in infections) started once vaccination became widespread.
Over 6% in May 2020 to 2% in late Nov 2020. That drop was all without the vaccine. Since it’s dropped below the 2% threshold. Therapeutics, not vaccines. https://covidusa.net/
There’s only 2 deaths associated with people who are unsure of vaccination status in the U.K. data. Just be unsure of your vaccination status and your chances of dying drops to next to nothing.
Errata: in post #60 above I quoted a WebMD article which was quoting (supposedly) a medical Journal article. The statement that those with covid were five times more likely to die than flu patients is obviously incorrect. The number should be 3.5 times more likely to die with Covid, not 5.3 times. Or alternatively the death rate for the flu is misreported as 5.3% when it should have been 3.5%. The only way to know is to lookup the original article, which i am not inclined to do at the moment.
That's a good point, but it doesn't speak to the effectiveness of vaccines which weren't approved for emergency use until Dec. 2020. Which is better, getting Covid and surviving because of good therapeutic, or avoiding getting it altogether?