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I think that the apparent death rates depend very much on timing, population density, general health and fitness, access to intensive care facilities, and the d

I think that the apparent death rates depend very much on timing, population density, general health and fitness, access to intensive care facilities, and the details of how cases and deaths are counted. Compare for instance the UK and Norway. Norway has about 1500 confirmed cases with seven deaths, average age of those dying is over eighty. The UK with about three and half thousand confirmed cases has nearly two hundred deaths. So on this basis the UK has a bit over twice the number of cases but twenty five times the number of deaths. This suggests that several of the factors I mentioned have a substantial effect on the reported likelihood of dying in the two countries; but which ones and is the likelihood really as different as it seems?

chippy 7y ago
You really cannot and should not compare confirmed cases / tests vs deaths when the calculation of confirmed cases or tests varies from place to place. For example, South Korea where anyone can get a test, versus the UK where only ill people in hospital will get a test. So what can you do? Possibly compare the number of sick people who have been tested in hospital? Possibly you need to control for demographics, and certainly per population. Possibly compare to official estimates of total population infected (e.g. UK could be around 50K now) Then you can start to look at the differences, but the error rates are going to be large.
- kwhitefoot 7y ago
  > You really cannot and should not compare confirmed cases / tests vs deaths when the calculation of confirmed cases or tests varies from place to place. That was my point.