USC and Los Angeles County find death rate much lower than expected in recent study

Good news about the Corona Virus!!

A problem with this new virus that is panicking a lot of people is knowing the true statistics about it. One problem is that testing has been limited to people who appear sick. A recent study from the University of Southern California and Los Angeles sampled around 1000 normal people and found some very interesting things. They found that the number of people who are infected is around 40 times higher than expected. (wait, that is actually good!) The number of people who already had the antibodies to this infection was 4.1%.

Taking into account the statistical margin of error, the results indicate that "2.8% to 5.6% of the county's adult population has antibody to the virus—which translates to approximately 221,000 to 442,000 adults in the county who have had the infection." That is 28 to 55 times higher than the tally of confirmed cases at the time of the study.

So, what does this mean? Well, the number of people who are confirmed as having died from Covid 19 is staying the same but the number of people who HAVE IT and didn't even know it is much higher... approximately 40 times higher!! So, again, this means that the percentage of people who die from this is dropping like a stone. More people have it. Less total people dying from it. The article goes on to state that "Based on that death toll, the new study suggests the true fatality rate among everyone infected by the virus is somewhere between 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent (without taking into account people infected since the study was conducted). The lower end of that range is about the same as the estimated fatality rate for the seasonal flu."

So, again, what does this mean? It means that there is a viral infection going around the country that has mortality rate similar to the usual flu. If you have a compromised immune system you don't want this infection (and also don't want the flu or strep throat). But for me it lowers the fear factor because it is like the usual flu according to statistics from USC and Los Angeles County study. Here is a link to the article summary that I read:

If you have some health challenges, give my office a call. I would love to test and help. All the best.
Dr. Cone
972-880-8541
email: lewiscone@yahoo.com