Still Free

Yeah, Mr. Smiley. Made it through the entire Trump presidency without being enslaved. Imagine that.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

COVID Like HPV? Was The Ghost Right?

A few posts ago, I asserted that:
The other thing is that I have thought that this virus, if it has been in circulation AND is as infectious as it seems to be, that it may be like HPV. Human Papiloma Virus is carried by at least half the population in the US. Most people are asymptomatic but do pass it on. A few people get cancers like cervical cancer and oral cancer relatively late in life due to this virus.
Now news out of Italy:
ROME - "The vast majority of people infected with Covid-19, between 50 and 75%, are completely asymptomatic but represent a formidable source of contagion". The Professor of Clinical Immunology of the University of Florence Sergio Romagnani writes this at the top of the Tuscany Region, in anticipation of a strong increase in cases also in the Region, on the basis of the study on the inhabitants of Vo 'Euganeo where the 3000 inhabitants of the country are been subjected to swab. The immunologist explains that the data provided by the study carried out on all the inhabitants of Vo 'Euganeo highlight two very important information: "the percentage of infected people, even if asymptomatic, in the population is very high and represents the majority of cases above all, but not only that, among young people; and the isolation of asymptomatics is essential to be able to control the spread of the virus and the severity of the disease ".
Screencap in case it disappears:

So there's two ways of looking at this:

The case numbers are far higher than the officials realize (and The Ghost said it was) and therefore the sick and death rate as reported are WAYYY over reported and therefore the shutdowns are a severe overreaction (in terms of actual public risk of serious illness or death).

OR

You hope you can find 50% of the population (that's 170 odd million people in the US) that are possibly infected and isolate them, in order to protect those who will, in short order, be dead from something else. And I don't say that to be crass or flip about the lives of the elderly and sick, just stating the cold hard facts.

It seems that the UK may be looking at this the same way. Either way it appears The Ghost was correct in his hypothesis Update 5:36PM: From