Quote:
Originally Posted by coffeebean
According to the CDC Measures of Mortality, what you are commenting about is the "Death-to-case ratio". That involves "guestimating" how many asymptomatics are out there. Other countries do not test as much as the US, so using those stats is not really relevant.
Deaths per capita is a better marker for the mortality rate of this virus. That is comparing apples to apples with other countries.
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Sorry but no. Deaths per capita is a better way to compare the impact of the virus on various countries. The mortality rate of this virus, or IFR is always calculated by deaths divided by cases. Ask any epidemiologist, including the CDC which calculates this rate on the link I provided above.
Yes the amount of testing per capita affects the IFR, if you test at a lower rate your IFR will be higher, if you test at a higher rate your IFR will be lower.
The death per capita rate also has problems and is not always apples to apples. USA and some countries count any death where deceased tested positive for virus as a covid 19 death, even if they died in a traffic accident or were struck with lightning. Even with no test, if Doctor suspects death due to covid 19, death is coded as covid 19. Some countries only count deaths FROM covid, not WITH covid. Some countries do not include covid deaths from nursing homes, they only count deaths that occur in hospitals and not at homes.
The best way to count actual covid deaths is by measuring excess deaths in a given country. Most countries know their average deaths per year from all causes, so a spike in deaths over that average can be assumed in 2020 to be from covid 19.
Read this article with some charts to understand excess deaths better. As you will see, there are many countries doing much worse per capita than USA
Covid-19 data - Tracking covid-19 excess deaths across countries | Graphic detail | The Economist
I realize now that you posted this thread in response to something you know who said. He was wrong which ever death rate you look at, but I don't pay attention to what any politicians say about this virus, USA does not have the best mortality rate per capita or IFR, but we are definitely not the worst either. I look at the science and numbers only.