Victor Davis Hanson // National Review
More data is critical in understanding the virus in general and in particular its transmission in particular countries. Anyone who looks at rates of morality and lethality of influenza and related pneumonia, especially in the elderly and infirm, can be shocked at the wide variances between particular countries. 52
Reliable data alone should drive proper policy, especially given that any decision made henceforth in the present landscape of bad and worse choices can involve on the one hand greater viral death and morbidity, and on the other economic catastrophe with its own particular role in ensuring non-viral morbidity and death.
So, what we would like to know, it seems, are a few of numbers of which we are not often apprised:
- What is the percentage of negatives of all those tested?
- What are the percentages of those who request, or are given tests, who are showing some symptoms of illness or at least feel that they are in some way ill?