Who Is At Risk

Various sources have reported an unreasonable number of Italian deaths from Covid-19, or perhaps I should write an unreasonably high percentage of infected Italians dying. Now comes clarification of those numbers.

The Daily Mail (U.K.) reports as follows:

99 per cent of coronavirus deaths in Italy are patients with existing medical problems, a study by the country's health service has found.

Research into 355 deaths found that only three of the victims, 0.8 per cent, had been clear of illnesses before they were infected.

Nearly half of them - 48.5 per cent - already had three or even more health conditions before they were diagnosed with Covid-19.

Another 25.6 per cent had two other 'pathologies', while 25.1 per cent had one.

According to the study, the most common of these problems in Italy include high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.

In other words, Covid-19 is killing the same compromised people influenza kills. Most healthy people survive Coronavirus as they do the flu.

The elderly are at risk because they are more likely to have one or more preexisting health issues. Plus Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world, ranking #5 at a median age of 45.5 years.

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Aside: It cannot be coincidence that 75 years later the three losing-side Axis powers of World War II are 3 of the 5 nations with the oldest populations - Germany (3), Japan (2), Italy (5). The other two are tiny irrelevancies - Monaco (1) and the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon (4).