Originally Posted by
champion110
That is exactly correct. We knew it was coming and did nothing. Also, even though they state that the elderly and immune suppressed persons are most at risk, I saw one doctor interviewed from Italy yesterday state that he was treating 13 with it - the 80 year old was showing no symptoms and is doing great - the 40-50 year olds were having the most problems (that is antidotal evidence, though).
I don't think anyone knows where the tests are right now. We don't know who or how many have it. Meanwhile, those that do have it are spreading it. Percentage wise it has less deaths than the flu, but as it spreads, that probably won't hold up. The death rate for the flue is .1%. The death rate of COV19 is 2.3& in China and 18% for those over 80. You have to remember that we have a flu vaccine that most people get, though. That mitigates some of the percentage. We don't have that for Corona. Also, we don't know if it will follow a seasonal pattern yet. Some viruses do and some don't.
We can't live in fear, but we can take action to protect ourselves and hope that it does not blow up. We don't have the ICU beds or ventilators. Italy was not prepared and neither are we... I just hope we get there very quickly...