Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   ChiCom virus infection survival rate by age group Date:   9/25/2020 1:13:10 PM (updated 9/25/2020 2:02:22 PM)

Right, because we have literally no idea exactly how many people have actually been infected because not everyone got tested or gets tested so they have to make a best guess on Ro and use that to calculate the infection mortality ratio. 

They do the exact same thing for the ordinary flu season. So for example, they estimated that the number of people infected in the U.S. in 2008-2009 with the H1N1 virus was 60 million.  Do they know for sure?  Nope. 

But what they can do is use the current data on confirmed infections and ascribed COVID deaths to develop their best estimate of Ro and then from there calculate the infection fatality ratio by age group.  As we have more data the estimates will be more accurate.  Early estimates were infection fatality ratios of almost 3% which was absurd and eventually proven wrong by orders of magnitude.

But again, none of this obviates my entirely logical conclusions regarding the pandemic.  Those who are at any significant risk are over age 70 and that is where we should have put almost all our effort while letting the rest of us go about our business.  They should have provided guidance to everyone (especially Cuomo and the idiot governor of NJ) about how to protect the elderly while the virus runs its course through the rest of the population. I cannot believe I have to say this over and over again because it is so self-evident.