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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Italy is lying about the number of dead from coronavirus
Posted by:
TRUMPOCRAT
()
Date: March 22, 2020 07:30AM
According to Prof Walter Ricciardi, scientific adviser to Italy’s minister of health, the country’s mortality rate is far higher due to demographics – the nation has the second oldest population worldwide – and the manner in which hospitals record deaths.
“The age of our patients in hospitals is substantially older – the median is 67, while in China it was 46,” Prof Ricciardi says. “So essentially the age distribution of our patients is squeezed to an older age and this is substantial in increasing the lethality.”
A study in JAMA this week found that almost 40 per cent of infections and 87 per cent of deaths in the country have been in patients over 70 years old.
And according to modelling the majority of this age group are likely to need critical hospital care – including 80 per cent of 80-somethings – putting immense pressure on the health system.
But Prof Ricciardi added that Italy’s death rate may also appear high because of how doctors record fatalities.
“The way in which we code deaths in our country is very generous in the sense that all the people who die in hospitals with the coronavirus are deemed to be dying of the coronavirus.
“On re-evaluation by the National Institute of Health, only 12 per cent of death certificates have shown a direct causality from coronavirus, while 88 per cent of patients who have died have at least one pre-morbidity – many had two or three,” he says.
Other experts have also expressed scepticism about the available data. Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says that countries do not yet have a good indication of how many mild infections they have.
If further testing finds more asymptomatic cases spreading undetected, the mortality rate will drop.
“The age of our patients in hospitals is substantially older – the median is 67, while in China it was 46,” Prof Ricciardi says. “So essentially the age distribution of our patients is squeezed to an older age and this is substantial in increasing the lethality.”
A study in JAMA this week found that almost 40 per cent of infections and 87 per cent of deaths in the country have been in patients over 70 years old.
And according to modelling the majority of this age group are likely to need critical hospital care – including 80 per cent of 80-somethings – putting immense pressure on the health system.
But Prof Ricciardi added that Italy’s death rate may also appear high because of how doctors record fatalities.
“The way in which we code deaths in our country is very generous in the sense that all the people who die in hospitals with the coronavirus are deemed to be dying of the coronavirus.
“On re-evaluation by the National Institute of Health, only 12 per cent of death certificates have shown a direct causality from coronavirus, while 88 per cent of patients who have died have at least one pre-morbidity – many had two or three,” he says.
Other experts have also expressed scepticism about the available data. Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says that countries do not yet have a good indication of how many mild infections they have.
If further testing finds more asymptomatic cases spreading undetected, the mortality rate will drop.
Re: Italy is lying about the number of dead from coronavirus
Posted by:
Butcher of Fairfax Overground
()
Date: March 22, 2020 07:36AM
There is food shortage going on. Start cranking out hot Italian sausage while the getting is good. Don't make the sweet sausages. They suck ass.
Re: Italy is lying about the number of dead from coronavirus
Posted by:
Maximus Decimus Meridiot
()
Date: March 22, 2020 07:54AM
How would you like to be the guy counting and writing down the death numbers in ancient Latin using Roman numerals and a naked Nubian slave doing quality assurance checks on a Greek Abacus?
Had a summer internship with Deloitte during a Strategic Human Capital Planning contract for the Helix Legion throughout the first Paleolithic Wars. That was.back in the 90's around the time Hannibal rode the T-Rex Striker Brigade over the Alps and a wicked case of Legionaires disease broke out in the motor pool. We failed that audit but learned a lot of valuable biomedical data analytics and robotic process engineering lessons from the guys over in biomedical R&D. Vatican City was just a construction trailer on a job site back then.
Had a summer internship with Deloitte during a Strategic Human Capital Planning contract for the Helix Legion throughout the first Paleolithic Wars. That was.back in the 90's around the time Hannibal rode the T-Rex Striker Brigade over the Alps and a wicked case of Legionaires disease broke out in the motor pool. We failed that audit but learned a lot of valuable biomedical data analytics and robotic process engineering lessons from the guys over in biomedical R&D. Vatican City was just a construction trailer on a job site back then.