Academic

INTERESTING: Studies Point To Big Drop In COVID-19 Death Rates. Two new peer-reviewed studies ar?

By Glenn Reynolds

INTERESTING: Studies Point To Big Drop In COVID-19 Death Rates.

Two new peer-reviewed studies are showing a sharp drop in mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The drop is seen in all groups, including older patients and those with underlying conditions, suggesting that physicians are getting better at helping patients survive their illness.

“We find that the death rate has gone down substantially,” says Leora Horwitz, a doctor who studies population health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and an author on one of the studies, which looked at thousands of patients from March to August. . . . Mateen says drops are clear across ages, underlying conditions and racial groups.

I’m prepared to believe that some of it’s better treatments, but it also looks as if a smaller proportion of cases are being hospitalized, which suggests that there’s more going on.

Related: The CDC’s Latest Antibody Data Confirm Huge Interstate Differences in COVID-19 Fatality Rates: The findings suggest that people infected in Connecticut were 10 times as likely to die as people infected in Utah or Oregon. “The latest data from antibody studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) across the country confirm that the death rate among Americans infected by the COVID-19 virus varies very widely from one state to another. The CDC’s prevalence estimates for August, combined with contemporaneous death counts, suggest that the infection fatality rate (IFR) was at least 10 times higher in Connecticut than in Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee, or Utah, for example.” People I know who’ve tested positive here have all had either mild or no symptoms. That’s not everyone, of course, but it’s something people around here are noticing in general and commenting on.

One explanation missing from this article is Vitamin D. But with days shortening, people’s Vitamin D levels will start falling, and by midwinter will be much lower. So if that’s it, well, take Vitamin D, at least.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on October 21, 2020 (boomark / email).