Originally Posted by
derjodel
0.5% is laughable. If the thing is not contained, it can be up to 10%. Look at Italy: 15k cases, 1k dead
Italy got into the unenviable situation that the health system was overwhelmed. Not to say that it cannot happen elsewhere. Once it is overwhelmed they have to turn to triage and that basically means that mortality goes up a lot as you simply stop helping those cases beyond a certain threshold, to preserve the available system for those where it makes most sense. Yes, that is usually done in war and not in a western country, but it can, and in this case, it did and does happen. Basically: Young and a good chance to survive? Get all the help you need. Old and very low chance? No more care, happy dieing.