Throwing this out there
I want to know why Italy seems worse off than other countries...
High cholesterol is common. Similarly, High Blood Pressure, heart disease, and diabetes were present (one or more) in 99% of the population affected who died. Those are identifiable risk factors.
In addition, the average age of those who died in Italy was 79.5 years old, by the last data I have seen.
With that in mind, we see that it appears that:
High Blood Pressure
Coronary disease
Diabetes
Elevated Age (60+)
are all factors which make mortality far more likely.
Note: That isn't saying that risk is solely confined to people who fall into those categories, but that mortality seems to be associated with one or more underlying medical conditions.
If you will note,virtually every death we heard about earlier on mentioned "preexisting medical conditions".
What we have not heard about (although in some cases that data is absent) is many people dying who had no preexisting conditions, and some of those may have simply been undiagnosed.
Also absent are the numbers which might indicate asymptomatic or mild cases of the disease, numbers which would drive mortality rates down. That is because testing is limited to those who present symptoms, and not done on the general population as a whole. So, while the disease has the characteristics of something highly contagious we really don't know howmany people are inherently resistant to catching it, nor what factors may enhance resistance.