Based on the CDC's current best estimate, what portion of people who catch Covid-19 and are aged 70 and above survive from it?
Correct Answer
On September 10, the CDC published new estimates of the infection fatality ratio for C-19. This is the "number of individuals who die of the disease among all infected individuals (symptomatic and asymptomatic)." The CDC's current best estimate is that this figure is 0.054 for people aged 70 and above. This equates to a survival rate of 94.6%. For people of other ages, the estimates vary as follows: 99.997% for ages 0 to 19, 99.98% for ages 20 to 49, and 99.5% for ages 50 to 69. At the outset of the pandemic, media outlets widely reported that about 3% or 4% of people who catch C-19 die from it, but these figures were based only on reported infections. Thus, they grossly undercounted the number of people with the disease, which made the death rate seem much higher than reality.
DocumentationC-19 Fatality RatesC-19 Fatality Rate Misinformation