Comment by arcticbull | Hacker News Reader

Comment by arcticbull | Hacker News Reader

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The German survey showed an actual fatality rate of 0.37% vs the flu at 0.1%. We know herd immunity is in the cards due to the lack of mutation of COVID, and that kicks in at 60-70% of the population.

The German study also suggested up to 15% of people may already have it, so we can further reduce this number (an incremental 45-55% of the population getting infected) -- So, if we run some simple arithmetic, we'll see the number of fatalities will be approximately 60-70K.

This is in line with the number of fatalities in a difficult flu season. The difference is because COVID does not mutate (or has not yet), this will be a one-off, one-time, one-year issue. The flu kills 60,000 each and every year. The Swedes have it right.

We can mitigate this by isolating the vulnerable.

So yes, we are, in fact, overreacting.

[EDIT] I wonder if this is in fact in excess of deaths we'd see anyways. I'd imagine an 80.5 year old with 3 underlying medical conditions (average in Italy of the dead) isn't just as vulnerable to a bad flu as they are to COVID, so if COVID takes them, the flu won't.

[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/09/999015/blood-tes...

Firstly, the German study analysed one small particularly hard hit town, so how you are extrapolating this to "people" in general is puzzling.

Secondly, there is a very wide range of reported fatality rates, with myriad factors known and unknown, so why you've chosen the lowest one globally (which, by the by, has always been an outlier and in any case is edging up past 1%) as the "actual" rate is, again, puzzling.

Finally, you are making a giant but unfortunately common logical error in using these already questionable death counts to make the case for an overreaction without attending to the obvious fact that without this "overreaction" every town, village and city on Earth would be Bergamo, where army lorries are conscripted to transport the dead from overwhelmed mortuaries, or worse.

Do better friendo.

> Finally, you are making a giant but unfortunately common logical error in using these already questionable death counts to make the case for an overreaction without attending to the obvious fact that without this "overreaction" every town, village and city on Earth would be Bergamo, where army lorries are conscripted to transport the dead from overwhelmed mortuaries, or worse.

Italy has the highest average age in Europe, and we know the virus is about 100X worse for people over 65 than it is for a 20 year old. Lombardy is the oldest region in the oldest country in Europe. The average age of the dead in Italy is 80.5 and has 3 underlying medical conditions. That's why it's so high there. I specifically called that out in the [EDIT].

I'd suggest doing some more reading.

The demographics in Gangelt skew older too, but otherwise they appear thoroughly average, and a totally reasonable representative sample. Especially as you yourself call out they were "particularly hard hit."

You don't see me claiming that the global death rate is 10% though, do you?

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