Covid Was Hiding Among Colds and Flus - WSJ
"Here are some Covid realities that we’ve long alluded to that might be useful to spell out in the current surge.
U.S. government scientists now estimate that 40% of cases are asymptomatic and 80% of symptomatic cases are mild—in short, 88% of subjects don’t know they are infected or have no great incentive to find out if they are suffering from Covid or some more familiar bug.
An American adult typically suffers two colds a year, while school-age children may suffer 10 or more, and 20 million of us get the flu.
A conservative estimate, then, is that 13 million Americans every day suffer from something not readily distinguishable from mild Covid (never mind asymptomatic Covid).
This perhaps explains why, despite conducting 186 million tests since the plague arrived, we’ve found only 12.7 million cases.
Most who have Covid aren’t getting tested; among those seeking tests the large majority are suffering from something that isn’t Covid.
The implications have been slow to sink in.
Embarrassing as America’s early testing fumbles were, the consequences were likely small...Read all.