THREAD: Georgia COVID Update (since we were one of first to reopen) -- RAW FIGURES only. No sensationalist clickbait headlines

2/ Data direct from Georgia's Department of Health website:

The age grouping with the largest (by far) amount of positive tests is 18-29. At 17,000 positives, it represents 22% of Georgia's 79,000 cases. Of that cohort, only 598 have been hospitalized, just 4%. Note, this does

3/ not mean 4% are in the ICU. This is just a hospital admission. So 96% of positive cases are NOT severe enough for hospital admit in this age group. With 13 deaths in this same group of 17,000 positives the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is 0.07%. Or a 99.93% survival rate. It is imp

4/ to note that these numbers do not consider comorbidities. It is likely that most of the particularly bad outcomes were people with pre-existing conditions. The next largest positive age group is 30-39. At 13,169 positives, there have been 948 hospitalizations, a 7% rate...

5/ again, this does not separate ICU admission from regular admission. Still 93% of infections in this age group do not require hospitalization. With 47 deaths in the 13,169 cases, CFR for this age group is 0.3% (or a 99.7% survival rate). These two age groups account for 38%

6/ of all positive cases (and apparently most of the new ones, as this spike in young cases is likely related to the fact that testing is very accessible now and you do not need to be experiencing severe symptoms to receive a test). Keep in mind that we recently had large

7/ protests and riots where tens of thousands of young people were in close proximity to one another for extended periods of time. That coupled with end to the lockdowns meant a lot more intermingling and opportunities for spread. But I'm cautiously optimistic about the numbers

8/ because the CFR and hospitalization rates are very, very encouraging. Remember that there is little to no preexisting immunity to this. So absent extending lockdowns indefinitely (not a realistic option politically or economically), it appears reopening is a feasible option

9/ We may have experienced a severe spike in cases due to the twin effects of reopening and protests/riots occurring basically simultaneously, but we should be careful not to attribute too much to a rise in cases when they're clustered in the younger, less vulnerable cohort

10/ One final thing to remember is that those over 60 still have a 20%+ hospitalization rate. So this remains a difficult disease because of its disparate effects. Keeping the vulnerable and elderly out of harms way remains the best thing we can do. But

11/ in my opinion, re-implementing lockdowns and continuing to shutter businesses will cause far more harm than good, especially given the economic and political stress already being experienced.

Data used available here: https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report