Quote Originally Posted by detltu View Post
This is not entirely correct or at least not a correct response to Carteks statement. The hospitalization rates are adjusted based on the sensitivity of the test and the total number of cases are estimated based on the number of hospitalizations. You are correct in stating the flu numbers do not include asymptomatic cases ( I was wrong about this). They are only estimating symptomatic cases, but they are estimating far more than actually test positive. I would say your snippit actually hurts your point. Cartek is correct that they are based on estimates while the Covid numbers are not.
I don’t disagree that they are based on estimates, but it is an extrapolation based on a data set that is directly tied to testing in a subset, and that subset of testing isn’t accounting for people that aren’t symptomatic.

While COVID is only based on test results (though we can use models ton predict how bad it will get), it actually includes some that are asymptomatic - people that were exposed to known COVID patients even if they themselves never were symptomatic.