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Two possibilities,

a) a faster spreading version of flu, which produces a greater overall quantity of severe cases, could be mistaken for a more virulent flu... which is what I believe most reports are doing now

b) the unprecedented lock down is because of the origins of the virus

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Another possibility: the subsequent ARDS is catastrophic in smokers. In China, 41% of people smoke.

Good point. Is there a statistics about mortality in smokers vs non-smokers?

This is what I've seen so far:

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202002.0051/v1

There are also other hints that line up with this. The mortality rate in the recent 1000+ case study seems to be much higher in males, but the rate of smoking in China is also much higher in males, which could be a clue.

https://jech.bmj.com/content/71/2/154

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