Originally Posted by
etudiant
The Italian reports indicate that the virus is dreadfully dangerous to older people, but fairly benign for people under 50, with flu like death rates of around 0.2% .for the younger, but up to 15% for those over 80.
That suggests that it is pointless to thrash the global economy via social shutdowns when a focus on protecting the old until a vaccine is available would be more effective at much lower human cost.
But one of the reasons it is so deadly for older people in Italy is that they are often denied access to intensive care units because they are full.Younger patients get priority.