Do we even know how many have been infected? If not then how do we know...

SOMETHING is wrong with our knowledge of coronavirus. At least in the UK but I think it may be wider. Tonight Michael Gove had the unenviable task of telling us that over 28,500 people in the UK had now died of the covid-19 disease it causes.
And that over 180,000 people had now tested positive for being infected with coronavirus.
That would imply (be sure it is wrong) that the mortality rate for coronavirus is well above 10%. That in fact for every 100 people infected 10 will surely die.
I attach a grim document which tells us the mortality rates for diseases in general.
And sure enough coronavirus is there at line 42. And the current global death rate is calculated at 7%. But it is already, and so far unconfirmed, at the bottom of a horror show of diseases and well above the very next in line - pertussis or whooping cough! Yes really that has a global infant victim mortality rate of 3.7%.
Small pox is lower. Measles is lower. The Spanish flu which killed 20 million or more at the end of the 1914-18 war is lower.
It isn't that simple and the list is complex but I worry. I really do. Because just now it is even higher in the UK at 28k dead out of 180k infected - you do the maths!


The mortality rate for covid-19 is currently much, much higher - but only among those (like me) who are 76 years old with underlying issues: Recovered cancer (leukaemia 2003/4) so two treatments of chemo followed necessarily by one of bone marrow transplant and, now, severe COPD - emphysema and bronchiectasis. My lungs have a life age of 95.
And only because so far we have not the foggiest idea how many people have really been infected. 28k into 18k goes x times; close to 6. Until we do it is vital we keep a sense of proportion. I am no fan of the ridiculous 'herd immunity' idea. That is only possible when an effective treatment is available and/or a vaccine.
So currently for people like me covid-19 is a straightforward, unabashed killer. But it hardly touches children, the young and even the young adults. And vastly more 30-60s survive than die.
What is mortality then? Are we handling this right at all?
Maybe those who get it should be sent to one of two places - hospital and when suitable to the newly minted isolation hospitals - the Nightingale Units.
Maybe with some care lockdown can be eased. Normal life can begin again for most and... well, yes.. it does mean consigning some of us to the grave that is already beckoning. But at least the rest of the world can get a life.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_disease_case_fatality_rates