Here's how many people have really been infected by the coronavirus
by David Hogberg, Healthcare Reporter |
| November 24, 2020 06:30 AM
More than 11 million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, but the true number of people that have been infected is unknown.
For every infected person who gets a positive test result, it is believed that more go undetected because they don’t bother to get tested, have only mild symptoms, or never experience symptoms at all.
Yet, the true number of infections is a critically important figure.
Estimates of the total number of COVID-19 infections are used to gauge how far along states and the country are in the pandemic and how many people are vulnerable to the disease. It also indicates whether the population might be gaining protection from the virus in the form of herd immunity — that is, when enough people have gained immunity through exposure to the virus to slow its overall spread.
There is no official estimate of the total number of infections. The closest such figure is a remark made by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield in a September congressional testimony that only about 10% of the country had been infected and that 90% of the population remained vulnerable. Redfield’s statement, the agency told the Washington Examiner, was based on testing performed at sites around the country through August in which the agency took blood samples and examined them for the presence of antibodies to the coronavirus.
The agency said that further such analyses would be released soon. In the meantime, outside analysts are left to guess at the total number of infections based on whatever data they are able to access.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/heres-how-many-people-have-really-been-infected-by-the-coronavirus
