1 A lot of really wierd numbers are being tossed around, most of them utterly meaningless since the disease can have symptoms so minor as to escape notice, and no country has tested any meaningful percentage of its population.

Wuhan cites 80,000 cases in a city of 11.8 million, which is a 0.7% infection rate. So the death rate cannot possibly be 3% of the population. Maybe 3% of those who are infected? That would make it little worse than the common flu - a death rate of .002% of the population.

The Princess cruise ship, an ideal condition for infection with close conditions, communal dining, and a closed environment with a single air conditioning system, had only a 20% infection rate. That's a known rate, since everyone was tested.

And yet San Diego is projecting need for hospital emergency beds based on a 30% infection rate. This is beyond stupid.

2 And note that of the Princess cruise ship, despite it's high percentage of "at risk" elderly, had only six deaths and a dozen or so hospitalized.

3 I agree with you, Bill; it's the tendency to use the highest, scariest numbers just to get peoples' attention. The most overused word these days is "shocking."

However, I'm not sure I'm ready to trust any numbers coming out of China, and especially out of Wuhan, these days. They aren't all that interested in solving a medical problem, just an image problem.

4 Well, I certainly would not trust any numbers coming out of the US government. How many weapons of mass destruction did they say Iraq had. What did they give as a reason for military occupation of Afghanistan?

And Governor Newsom of California said he expects a 50% infection rate in this state. Only 20% on a ship full of old people, but... Idiocy.

5 I agree; the numbers being bandied about are not just crazy but ridicuulous.  And the public eats it up; they never once actually try to do the basic arithmetic.

Somebody is lying about this. Either the government knows more then they are saying or they are allowing this to be hyped for some reason. Something really stinks here.

6 We already know how liberals can't do basic arithmetic because we saw it on that now famous (infamous?) TV clip a few weeks ago about how much money Mini-Mike would have to give U.S. citizens.