What We Are Learning From Global Data on COVID-19 So Far
Rates may differ in the U.S. as a result of chronic disease
Among the early lessons in the international data circulating about coronavirus infections were vivid indications of important risk differentials. South Korea, for instance, where population testing was conducted among asymptomatic people, reported consistently that 98% to 99% of all infections were mild. Severe infections warranting hospitalization, and the mortality toll, were highly concentrated among older people—especially those over 70 or 80 even more so—and those with significant prior health problems. Over time, as reports from multiple countries were aggregated into a global pattern, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes emerged as particular risk factors.
The list of SARS-CoV-2 risk factors continues to evolve now, as the pandemic rages and lessons are sought amidst the tumult, urgency, and drama of clinical care. In the aftermath of such toil and anguish both intense and intimate, there are the deceptively anonymous patterns in epidemiological data that population statistics. There are suggestions here that obesity, too, is a risk factor for severe infection, as, predictably, are immune system disorders, cancers, and chronic diseases of the lung. Smoking is clearly a risk factor, likely dose-related…
