60% to 70% of the German population will be infected by the coronavirus, Merkel says
Source: CNBC
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that up to 70% of the German population will likely contract the coronavirus, suggesting that the governments priority is about slowing its spread.
Germany has so far reported 1,565 cases of the virus and three deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, and the chancellor has come under fire for her governments handling of the response.
When the virus is out there, the population has no immunity and no therapy exists, then 60 to 70% of the population will be infected, Merkel told a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The process has to be focused on not overburdening the health system by slowing the viruss spread. Its about winning time.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/11/angela-merkel-most-people-will-get-the-coronavirus.html
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)lapfog_1
(29,239 posts)320 x .6 x .03 = 5.76 million people dead here in USA.
7000 x .6 x .03 = 126 million people dead around the world.
worse
320 X .6 x .2 = 38.4 million people that will require hospitalization here in the US. we have naybe 800,000 with maybe only 160,000 that are not in use at ant one time.
We better take some drastic measures soon to slow down the virus...
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)Following Trump's playbook, they're trying to deflect, stoke racism, and shift blame to others.
We need to counteract their narrative by calling it something that blames Trump for failure to act.
I call it "Captain Trumps", a play on "Captain Trips", the catastrophic plague from Stephen King's "The Stand"
dalton99a
(81,673 posts)Bayard
(22,204 posts)Her husband is stationed there, Army Ranger, and they live on the base. She's 6 months pregnant.
I haven't seen anything about how the virus could affect a fetus, but I can't think its good.
Now, my brother and his wife in southern Indiana have been diagnosed with it. Flu tests negative. Burning lungs and fever. Hospital won't take them. Waiting to hear back from doctor on what to do next. Think they got it from one of her real estate clients who had just returned from overseas.
So super worried about my family now.
Skittles
(153,261 posts)and that children are thankfully not getting hammered - there's been no child deaths from coronavirus
DFW
(54,478 posts)They live near Frankfurt.
Bayard
(22,204 posts)Recovering on antibiotics.
Sure would have helped if they were tested, and saved a lot of angst.
bucolic_frolic
(43,443 posts)Slowing the throughput to the health care system will maximize outcome. A fully functional universal health care system and a cooperative informed populace helps. We have not a lot of that, and pockets of chaos are sure to arise.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)143,000 or so is the total active and recovered detected, that's just a little over .01 percent of 1385 billion . Many areas in China are apparently far less affected.
The "can only slow the spread" notion seems to me to be an excuse to implement less aggressive, less expensive efforts based on cost/benefit -- with the benefit side of the equation much reduced ("whatever we do, a vast majority will get infected anyway, and will ultimately kill the same number of people, so there is no real benefit.)
If I lived in Europe, I'd be a little concerned about spread from Germany due to moderated response.
NickB79
(19,283 posts)Before the disease established fully outside Wuhan. It was an immense blow to their economy and cost them many billions of dollars to do so.
The rest of the world thought they could handle the virus without resorting to such draconian methods. They were wrong, as the Italians have recently found out. That delay has now made it almost impossible to contain this like China did.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)... outside of a dictatorship.
Perhaps anything less than those measures can do nothing to change the overall percentage of the population that contracts the disease. Time will tell if the 60-70% predictions are true. And I think time will tell if measures -- even at this point -- can change the total "ultimately" infected.
Perhaps I'm deluded, but I believe there are ways to reduce the number overall who get infected. More widespread testing, etc. I don't think every county is destined to become "another Italy." Customs, like kissing on both cheeks as a greeting certainly increased the number infected during the "circulating, undetected" phase. Relative to the U.S., a larger portion of their population is over 65. They also have more smokers. A few things that make them more vulnerable.