Best Medical/Scientific explanation of why NOT to worry?

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COMMENTARY(The RAND Blog)
Estimates of COVID-19's Fatality Rate Might Change. And Then Change Again.

CDC staff support the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) response in the the CDC Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta, Georgia, March 10, 2020Photo by James Gathany/CDC/Reuters by Raffaele Vardavas, Courtney A. Gidengil, Sarah A. Nowak March 11, 2020

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With infections of the new coronavirus confirmed now in 114 countries or regions, people around the world are following the daily tally of COVID-19 cases, wondering exactly how lethal this new disease is. The truth is, it's hard to know. An important measure of the deadliness of a disease outbreak is the case-fatality rate (CFR). The CFR is the ratio of the number of deaths attributed to a disease to the total number of confirmed cases. For example, a disease with two deaths out of 100 confirmed cases has a CFR of 2 percent. Media outlets often imply that the ratio of current deaths to all current cases is the case-fatality rate, but it's not. The case-fatality rate can only be calculated based on finalized cases in an outbreak—that is, once all patients have either recovered or died. But early in an outbreak, even good estimates of the CFR can be too high—or too low.

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The primary reason why the CFR may overestimate the probability of death is that the number of confirmed diagnosed cases is likely an undercount of the true number of infections. This problem is known as ascertainment bias, which is to say that the medical system is much more likely to confront and diagnose severe cases and deaths than mild ones. Again suppose there were two deaths out of 100 resolved cases (people recovered or died)—but that an additional 50 mild cases have gone undetected. That means that while the CFR is 2 percent, the percent of all cases who have died is 2/150 = 1.3 percent. Early in an outbreak, even good estimates of the case-fatality rate can be too high—or too low. Share on Twitter This is why even as some reports from China say the death rate is 3.4 percent for known cases, medical experts such as Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say that number is “certainly an overestimate” and expect a global rate below 1 percent.

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An initial study from China analyzing COVID-19 cases reported as of Feb. 11 found an estimated case-fatality rate of 2.3 percent. Just a month later, as of March 10, in mainland China there were 3,136 deaths and 80,757 COVID-19 cases, giving an estimated case-fatality rate of 3.8 percent. A variety of factors could have caused the upward change in fatality-rate estimates, but it is likely partially attributable to the deaths of individuals whose cases were previously unresolved. The case-fatality rate was zero in the United States until the first U.S. death was reported on Feb. 29. As of March 11, it was 36 deaths of 1,291 cases, or an estimated CFR of 2.8 percent. But only eight cases are resolved. Still, there's reason to suspect that these rough early CFR calculations are, in fact, overestimating the probability that an individual who contracts COVID-19 will die from it. Reports suggest significant ascertainment bias for COVID-19: Approximately 80 percent of confirmed cases are mild. There may be many cases with very mild symptoms that have gone completely undetected. Regardless of what the final CFR ends up being, the public needs to understand how and why these figures evolve and change over the course of an outbreak. That will enable more transparent reporting on the part of media and policymakers, and ultimately help to avoid erosion of trust.

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Is she >70yrs old?

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What is going on with them?

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What are the new updates?

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Rita Wilson took to Twitter on Friday, reaching out to fans and asking for suggestions regarding a playlist -- a quarantine playlist.

"I want to make a @Spotify playlist for people self quarantining," she wrote. "Something that might relate to isolation, perhaps? Can you send some song ideas that I can add?Also, what should we call it?Quarantine Choruses? This is what one does in quarantine.Uthink of stuff like this."

Later Friday, her work was done. "Quarantunes" was born -- and lives here, for anyone interested.

The playlist features 32 songs and runs for just more than two hours, with classics like Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" and The Beatles' "I'm So Tired," to more modern hits like Miley Cyrus' "The Climb," Destiny Child's "Survivor" and MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This."

LINK

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Tom Hanks thanks his helpers as he recovers from coronavirus

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