I’m thinking these numbers are going to be hard to nail down. How many will have a mild infection and not even realize it’s not a cold or flu and never see a Doctor?
The flu numbers are estimated at the national level. They estimate that 10% of the population get the flu, but most do not go to the hospital.
It will be the same with this.
Once they get hospitalized, the numbers change a lot. Flu deaths are fairly rare (across all cases.). The Coronavirus cases die at a higher rate/case. The other thing that is troubling is that those who are really sick, stay sick for a longer time.
Just like the flu, this is likely to be mild for a vast majority of people. That’s good.
The bad is that the healthcare system is coming off the flu season and the beds are full with flu patients. Combine the degree of severity (higher than the flu), the length of stay, the degree of high care and resource...this can all impact the normal seasonal operation of the hospital system.
Don’t read a panic tone...I am just explaining why comparisons of an “either/or” situation are misleading. If these things happened consecutively, it would be easy. But the flu and the virus happen concurrently.
I was thinking the same thing. Most people I know don’t go the doctor every time they catch a cold. The vast majority of people have mild or in some cases no symptoms.
The mortality rate is totally dependent on the number of people that actually get tested for a disease. The less number of people that are tested, the higher the mortality rate.