Study: Coronavirus Mortality Rate Lower than Expected

by Edwin Mora

Fewer people are dying from the highly contagious novel coronavirus than previously estimated, according to a study from Britain published Monday in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

In the new study, the researchers did note that people who are 50 years or older have a substantially higher risk of dying or developing severe illness from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The researchers gleaned their findings from a comprehensive analysis of virus cases in mainland China that they noted can be applied to other countries.

Referring to the coronavirus death rate in early March, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce, predicted, “If you look at the cases that have come to the attention of the medical authorities in China, and you just do the math, the math is about two percent.”

The new study, however, estimated the coronavirus death rate to be as low as 0.66 percent.

When the Lancet study researchers took into account cases that may not have been clinically confirmed —  mild or asymptomatic infections — the death rate in mainland China dropped to 0.66 percent, a figure that is still more than six times higher than the 0.1 percent of people killed by the flu in the United States.

When the researchers ignored the unconfirmed cases, they found that the coronavirus death rate in mainland China rose to 1.38 percent, a number that is still lower than Fauci’s earlier estimate.

Dr. Fauci did emphasize in early March that the estimated number of deaths could potentially drop, noting that “as a group, it’s going to depend completely on what the factors of asymptomatic cases are.”

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Lancet study researchers acknowledged that their death rate estimate is lower than previous predictions. However, they stressed that coronavirus is still several times deadlier than the seasonal flu.

“Our estimates can be applied to any country to inform decisions around the best containment policies for COVID-19,” Azra Ghani, a Lancet study co-author from the Imperial College London, reportedly said.

full story at https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/31/study-coronavirus-mortality-rate-lower-than-expected/