COVID-19 May Be Ten Times More Prevalent and What That Could Mean

The CDC is now claiming that there may be ten times as many people who have been infected with COVID-19 as the official estimates indicate. (From NBC News via AOL)

PROBLEMS:

This is the CDC dominated by the Trump administration and therefore everything they report must be scrutinized carefully.

This is also the same CDC that has been wrong several times during the epidemic, another cause for concern.

If there are ten times as many people who have been infected, then the mortality rate for this disease is TEN TIMES LESS than the current estimate.

There is also a question of how data is being compiled. If the data comes from hot spots like New York City, they will reflect a much higher rate of infection than you might see in Bangor, Me. If you are adding data from blood tests, which looks for antibodies, your numbers may still be too low because the latest reports suggest that conferred immunity only lasts for two months.

If you are adding data from random blood tests to data accrued from nasal swabs, you have probably counted 123,000 cases TWICE, once when they were identified with nasal swabs and again by anti-body blood tests.