Iran lawmaker says 50 dead from new virus in city of Qom

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By AYA BATRAWY

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A staggering 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, a lawmaker was quoted as saying on Monday, even as the Health Ministry insisted only 12 deaths have been recorded to date in the country.

The new death toll reported by the Qom representative, Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani, is significantly higher than the latest number of nationwide confirmed cases of infections that Iranian officials had reported just a few hours earlier, which stood at 12 deaths out of 47 cases, according to state TV.

Health Ministry spokesman Iraj Harirchi rejected the Qom lawmaker’s claims, insisting the death toll from the virus remains at 12.

However, he raised the number of confirmed cases from the virus to 61. Some 900 other suspected cases are being tested, he said.



Pedestrians wear masks to help guard against the Coronavirus, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. On Sunday Iran's health ministry raised the death toll from the new virus to 8 people in the country, amid concerns that clusters there, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)


Read more: https://apnews.com/32540d09ec101aac057660ef1b0aa970

[Crazyleftie]

1. The death rate seems pretty high........

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Markets are tanking because of it.

Dow futures -700 pts.

[padah513]

3. This is some Stephen King isht

Captain Trips in slow motion

[lapfog_1]

4. now that we have about 5 weeks of "epidemic" to study

There are a statistical significant set of outcomes (recovery or death).

2,626 deaths (officially reported) v. 25,153 recoveries.

A fatality rate of around 9.4%... which is much higher than the anticipated 2.5%.

That said, when more of the secondary and tertiary transmission cases are resolved, I expect the fatality rate to drop again.

We are also catching the infections faster and providing more aggressive support treatments for those at risk of fatality (older people with pre-existing respiratory illness).

The effort to contain the virus seems to have failed... and, if certain reports are to be believed, the number of infections is also much higher than official totals.

We should now stop with the "no worse than other causes of death" meme that was floated around by well meaning but wrong public health officials. This is a pandemic, and should the fatality rate hold up, it will be a really bad one.