4 ms·

Conspiracy not needed. It’s winter. Old people die from the flu. Viral pneumonia. Without RNA tests the causes of death aren’t entire trustable. Consider the

• atoav 7y ago
  The German virulogist who developed the first test for COVID-19 speculated that based on the numbers Italy must have had more deaths earlier on, but might have mistaken them as old people dying from the flu (which happens all the time and therefore didn't raise any eyebrows in the medical system).
• contravariant 7y ago
  The US might be undercounting but they are still reporting a high proportion of deaths compared to infections. In my mind it is more likely that mild or asymptomatic cases are being missed than that deaths are being missed. So the number of deaths seems more likely to give an accurate indication of how far the outbreak has progressed. But indeed it's possible that those countries are simply not testing people suspected of having developed regular pneumonia, it's always tricky to compare these kinds of statistics when each country might use their own definitions and methods.