Approximately 10% of cases get bad enough to require hospitalization, and 1% become critically ill and require intubation. South Korea has more hospital beds p

Approximately 10% of cases get bad enough to require hospitalization, and 1% become critically ill and require intubation. South Korea has more hospital beds per capita than any country in the world other than Japan[1] at 12.27 per 1000 people. They are better equipped to handle the critically ill cases and save them. Italy has a much better health care system than the US, but at last count (2017) they had 3.18 beds per 1000 and I'm guessing their respirators on hand are far fewer than what South Korea has. The US at last count only had 2.77 per 1000. Also worth noting that these counts are not open beds, so the real available capacity in the US is more likely to be just over one bed per 1000 people, and the number of available ventilators likely are also inferior to Italy and South Korea. While the US population is younger than Italy[2][3] it has a higher rate of diabetes (nearly double Italy's rate, at 9.4% vs 5.3% for diabetes) and obesity[4][5][6] which can be complicating factors. So a less healthy population, with an inferior health care system, and other factors being equal, mean that Italy's experience with Coronavirus is likely to be a preview of what can happen here. Best guesses I'm hearing is it's about 10x the regular flu season. On top of the health care system being overrun with patients affected by the outbreak, this likely means that other emergencies, which could've been treatable, will not be. Heart attacks, strokes, cancer treatments will all be affected. I think raising fears of engineered pandemics at this time is getting into conspiracy theory territory, feeds xenophobia, and is not helpful. Nature, on its own, is more than inventive enough of an adversary and the human population is a monoculture that has a gigantic attack surface for garden-variety wild viruses. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_countries_by_hospital_beds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_countries_by_hosp... [2] https://www.populationpyramid.net/italy/2020/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/italy/2020/ [3] https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2020/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/united-states-of-america/2... [4] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0718-diabetes-report.html https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0718-diabetes-repor... [5] https://www.istat.it/en/archivio/202712 https://www.istat.it/en/archivio/202712 [6] https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Obesity-Update-2017.pdf https://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/Obesity-Update-2017....