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The 90/10 Rule

By May 10, 2020Commentary1 min read

You often hear about the 80/20 rule, 80% of time one thing is true and the remaining 20% is something different.  This epidemic looks like it follows a 90/10 rule.  It appears that about 90% of all infections are asymptomatic or very mild.  In the remaining 10% of cases, it looks like maybe 10% of that group, or 1% of the population, require hospitalization.  And in that 1%, maybe 10% die, or one-tenth of a percent of the population.  But that is for the population as a whole.  If you took the non-frail elderly population, it would be more like the 99/1 rule.  Maybe one serious case out of a hundred people, maybe.  And maybe one-hundred of a percent deaths, maybe.  Just shows the extreme bifurcation of the disease.

Kevin Roche

Author Kevin Roche

The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry through Roche Consulting, LLC. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.

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