Dryce
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
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The R0 for SARS-CoV-2 is anything between 2.0 and 6.6, compared to 1.3 for seasonal Flu. And, being exponential, even a low R0 of just 2 is still significantly higher than 1.3.
R0 is useful for handling the inituial risk and getting a rough measure of progress - and making the initial decision to take (expensive) action.
But strategically is it of any use thereafter? When outbreaks are localised we need to know and undersand the circumstances. The government has been very coy initially about Leicester. There are other local outbreaks only reported locally - really we need to understand the details of these so that the risks and the appropriate responses are better understood.
The mortality rate is also higher:
I appreciate that COVID-19 mortality has proven to be an illusive metric, and so the suggested '7 times higher' is quite speculative, but even-so the majority of research into COVID-19 mortality rates so far suggest that it is considerably higher than flu.We might finally know how deadly the coronavirus is compared to the flu
As the number of coronavirus deaths mounts in the US and other countries, researchers are trying to figure out the true fatality rate of COVID-19. …bgr.com
I think there is also a question as to whether the mortality rate is dropping - not just because of more less aggressive strains but also the evolution of better treatment.