Your point is just plain commonsense. Hospitals and clinics communicate amongst themselves regularly. Especially in a crisis. Each hospital and clinic will have someone keeping stats. Not hard to call around and tally those.
There are also many reports circulating about people dropping in the streets and in their homes. Those numbers will be much harder to tally at this stage of the outbreak.
I presume the local police and EMT’s are involved in tallying some of these numbers and the central gov’t is requiring reports on illness rates and death rates.
I don’t believe the Communist Chinese gov’t is being open with the world as to the true extent of this outbreak.
I’m praying the actual numbers are in fact closer to what they are publicizing than this doctor or nurses number for the sake of those people but, I believe it is likely that this doctor/nurses numbers could be closer to the truth.
[Your point is just plain commonsense. Hospitals and clinics communicate amongst themselves regularly. Especially in a crisis. Each hospital and clinic will have someone keeping stats. Not hard to call around and tally those.]
The people working at these hospitals aren’t just medical professionals - they are area people with friends and relatives in the danger zone. You can bet they’re not just figuring out their odds of survival - they’re communicating these numbers to their friends and relatives. Some medicos are probably trying to decide whether they should flee to avoid certain death. Most presumably have families to care for, whether parents or children. And if they think healthy friends and relatives should leave the quarantined zone by hook or by crook to avoid infection and almost certain death, they will tell them.