One needs to look at per capita figures in order to determine its lethality.
Just because there are high figures thrown around doesn't mean it kills in great numbers on a per capita basis.
From my understanding the lethality is still quite low.
As per the reviews back in March, this virus has a fatality rate around 3%. The US has roughly 5,000,000 infected people, and roughly 150,000 deaths.....so far. That’s still 3%, just as early statistical projections/predictions showed.
Which has several meanings.
- this COVID is 20 to 30 times as lethal as the flu (~0.1% mortality)
- the 3% factors in high ~10 to 15% mortality in the elderly, while much lower mortality rate in the young
- which leads to a lot of anecdotal nonsense: “Well, I have a friend who got it, and now he’s fine. So it can’t be all that bad.”
Seat belts have obviously been demonstrated to save lives. I have yet to see a single study that clearly demonstrates that mask wearing saves lives. Don't get me wrong--I think mask wearing DOES work but this is based purely on intuition which could be wrong. The other issue I have is when the so-called "experts" try to claim that the virus is airborne AND that wearing masks works. You can't have it both ways, because if the virus were truly airborne, then it could easily penetrate a mask as a virus particle is far smaller in diameter than the space between the mask and the face. I don't think that the virus is airborne, though. If it's spread through droplets only, then masks should at least filter out some of the virus.
How ‘Superspreading’ Events Drive Most COVID-19 Spread
Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2—Theoretical Considerations and Available Evidence
Super spreader events are not a bunch of people writhing all over one another, or spitting in the common soup bowl. They are concerts, or parties wherein everyone is sharing the same air. That is the common denominator.
Also, we don’t breath out a dry dust of virions. We breath out water droplets (fog). This is roughly 1 liter (quart) per day. The virions ride inside those droplets. The masks, especially 2 to 4 layer thick (good quality) masks will stop the droplet fog. And because they stop the droplets, they stop the virus.
Lastly, all infections have an “infectious dose”. This term is not used in public a lot, partly because it makes it difficult to understand, but also, because it is not well qualified for many pathogenic organisms (diseases). However, it does influence the infectivity of an organism.
The idea is that getting just one virus or bacteria onto your mucosal membranes (including into your lungs) probably won’t be enough to give you an infection. The “bugs” need a healthy colony-sized group before they can set up house inside you.
With shigella or Hepatitis B, you just need a few (literally), while others need a seriously big load in their settlement colony.
So the masks might leak a little, but as long as they’re stopping 50 or 80% of the incoming droplet fog breathed out by the singer on stage, or the kid standing next to you, then they are preventing you from sucking in a full-sized infectious dose/colony. And your lungs/nose just breath/snot drip out and kill off the few invaders before they can set up shop.
