“In general, countries that test less and reserve it for those already very ill, like Italy, have higher fatality rates.” https://nytimes.com/2020/03/28/opinion/germany-coronavirus.html…
Italy tests the hospitalized. “And many more young people in Germany have tested positive for the virus than in other countries. In part, that’s attributable to the country’s more extensive testing.” And then you compare death rates? What did I miss?
Absolute death rates per capita. Rate of positives as an artifact of greater testing, and naive fatality rate are both irrelevant. High testing incidence is a sign of longer period in test-and-trace containment phase, so the conclusion that Germany is doing better is well founded
“That’s a fatality rate of 0.72 percent. By contrast, the current rate in Italy — where over 10,000 people have died — is 10.8 percent. In Spain, it’s 8 percent. Over twice as many people have died in Britain, where there are around three times fewer cases, than in Germany.”
Ok fair... they’re uncritically presenting data in ways designed to at least point to the wrong conclusion. Still... directionally right for the wrong reasons. I’m guessing Italy will land in the 2-4% range when they estimate general incidence and do the math right
We’re all guessing at everything. It would be nice to have competent journalists to assist us. But, as I said, I think I’ve finally developed immunity.