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The Extreme Bifurcation of the Epidemic

By May 14, 2020Commentary

The CDC in the last couple of days has added a large number of deaths to its official coronavirus fatality toll.  The CDC data is lagged as it is dependent on death certificates being sent to it from the states.  The CDC currently has almost 60,000 deaths compiled.  There are 104 million people in the US aged 24 and under.  There have been 71 deaths in this group.  This is microscopically low level of .000068% of that population.  There are around 22 million people aged 75 or older in the US.  There are 32,408 deaths in this group. That is a rate of .15% of this population.  The rate in the 75 and over group is 2205 times greater than that in the 24 and under group.

Now you see why I think you have to look at this as two different epidemics and you also see why more and more pressure is building for a change in strategy to protecting that high risk group and letting the general population, especially younger people, go about their business.

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