The Homa Files

Today, let’s put Covid death rates in perspective…
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By now it’s clear that people older than 65 are the most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus, and the age penalty is severe for the elderly nursing home patients with underlying health conditions.

Source: WSJ, CDC

According to the WSJ:

• About 2/3s of Covid deaths have been over 65
• The median age of death 80.
• About 1/4 Covid deaths have been folks over 85.
• 95% of deaths involved at least 1 chronic condition
• 60% of deaths had three or more comorbidity factors
• About 1/2 of all Covid deaths have been nursing home patients

Here’s some good news that puts those numbers in perspective…

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Good News

Also according to the WSJ:

There have been practically no deaths for those under 35.

For most people under the age of 65,  the risk of dying from Covid-19 isn’t much higher than from getting in a car accident driving to work.

Most people over age 65 who are in generally good health are unlikely to die or get severely ill from Covid-19.

Data from  antibody studies indicate that about 92% of those infected from ages 60 to 79 have mild or no symptoms, and only about 6% are hospitalized.

3/4s of people older than 90 have mild or no symptoms and fewer than 10% die.

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Bottom line: The best advice is still: Don’t get infected!

Follow the common sense guidelines: avoid high risk situations (and people), keep your distance, wear a mask in public areas, stay outside, use disinfectants, wash your hands, don’t touch your face.

That said, it’s still reassuring to know that getting infected isn’t necessarily a death sentence.

This entry was posted on June 15, 2020 at 10:00 am and is filed under Coronavirus - Covid 19. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.