As COVID-19 continues making its way through the United States, the virus’ case fatality rate seems to be flattening, and dropped to 3.0 percent Sept. 1.
Reporter Mitch Legan got together with a group of local experts including Indiana University epidemiologist Ana Bento, IU Health infectious disease Dr. Tom Hrisomalos and Graham McKeen, IU’s assistant director of public and environmental health, for a Zoom call to discuss what that means, why that is and what we’ve learned about the coronavirus.
Mitch Legan: The [COVID-19] case fatality rate has been dropping since May, according to Our World in Data, and it seems to maybe be flattening out a bit. Can someone tell me, is that the case and why might that be?
Ana Bento: That measure is not so much a measure of the burden of infection in a population, but is also dependent on things like access to health[care] and the demographics of the individuals that are getting infected in certain regions. So it's a very difficult metric to use as a “Yes, we're doing great.” Or “No, we’re not doing so well.”
