The fatality rate that @fayedsouza refers to is the "case fatality rate" (CFR). Let's remember that it tells us almost nothing about the true "infection fatality rate" (IFR) in India - i.e., how likely COVID-19 is to kill you. Is low CFR good news?... 1/4 https://twitter.com/fayedsouza/status/1262712893704826880
Low CFR could be good news. For example, it could tell us that there's a high level of testing compared to total cases. Namely, a good proportion of infections are being caught. Good disease surveillance - e.g., Germany. Or, on the other hand... 2/4 https://twitter.com/muradbanaji/status/1259412918728142848
...Low CFR could hint that we are undercounting #COVID19 deaths. For example there is evidence of this in both Maharashtra ( https://science.thewire.in/health/covid-19-mumbai-comorbid-fatality-criteria-missing-deaths-modelling/) and Delhi. Then low CFR is *bad* news for disease surveillance. So... 3/4 https://twitter.com/muradbanaji/status/1262354840040157184
...in summary, case fatality rate is yet another metric which should be quoted with caution. We should not make changes in CFR into "good" or "bad" news (nationally or statewise) without carefully following the data story. 4/4
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