Experts say Wuhan is milder than other illnesses in the COVID-19 family, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (sars) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (mers). But it is still deadly dangerous. COVID-19 has an estimated mortality rate of 3.4% but it could be a lot lower than that as milder cases of infection are not likely tested.
The main problem with fighting COVID-19 is its infection rate which is estimated to be higher than the other recent viruses. COVID-19 has two or three times the transmission rate compared to the flu and the case fatality rate for COVID-19 is around 30 times higher than the flu. Here’s how it compares to other more serious viruses:
Infection rates
COVID-19 has the highest infection rate, however it could also be much lower due to milder cases of COVID-19 infection going unreported. This stat will become more accurate over time. The graph shows that it is similar to sars.
Here is the mortality rate of recent viruses
Look at Mers, I never realised how deadly that was.
Imagine if the first reported cases in China were not suppressed by the regime. It could have been contained like mers.
Mortality stats by age for Covid-19
Like all initial stats, as time progresses we will get more accurate data on COVID-19 which could change what is currently being reported. For this reason, I also didn’t bother quoting the sources for the data.
