If you listen to the media, the virus is getting worse and worse. They peddle fear with endless scare tactics. Actually, things are much better. Here are a few facts:
1. The number of new cases has declined by about 30% each day during the last four weeks.
2. The number of people in the hospital due to the virus has declined by about 25% during the last four weeks.
3. Not surprisingly, the number of deaths each day has also been declining. Because there is a lag in deaths after new cases and hospitalizations, the decline in deaths has been less than that for the other two categories.
4. Treatment of the virus has been more successful than in the early days of the pandemic. Thus, the states with the more recent case spikes have much lower death rates than those which got hit early. In California, Texas and Florida the combined death rate has been such that 1.8% of those infected have died. In New York, New Jersey and Illinois (which got hit hard early in the pandemic) the death rate saw 7.0% of those infected die. Some of this is due to the foolish orders by NY governor Cuomo to force nursing homes to admit patients infected with the virus, but the main difference is that treatment is now much better.
5. Even now, new treatment options are being developed. A new treatment which is based upon plasma from those recovered from the virus was tested in Israel with the results being released this past week. About 85% of severely ill people given the treatment have recovered. In the past, the recovery rate for such patients absent this new treatment was less than 25%.
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