Many people will die from coronavirus
As one country flattens its curve, another is approaching its peak. The total excess deaths caused by coronavirus are impossible to predict, and thus difficult to plan for. Lives will continue to be lost and by the end, no one will emerge untouched by this disease.
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The Argument
COVID-19 has potential to become one of the deadliest pandemic diseases in human history. The World Health Organization published the Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on February 28, 2020, estimating the death rates of COVID-19 based on 55,924 laboratory-confirmed cases in China. In the early stages of the outbreak in January 2020, the crude fatality rate was found to be over 17%, while this rate had reduced to 0.7% for cases identified in February thanks to improved standards of care.
With new cases of COVID-19 emerging around the world by the end of February 2020, experts have predicted that ultimately 60-70% of the global population could be infected by the coronavirus. A 60% infection rate for 2020's global population of almost 8 billion would mean that, even if a relatively low fatality rate around 1% was maintained, tens of millions of people would eventually die from COVID-19. A death toll of that magnitude would make the coronavirus outbreak the deadliest pandemic in at least 100 years, since the Spanish flu infected 500 million people and killed 50-100 million between 1918 and 1920.