Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories
Yesterday, the Taiwan News had a story that suggested the number of those infected and dying of Coronovirus was higher than reported: the recovery rate was lower: and by implication WHO and the Chinese were being less than honest.
So cue the Daily Mail, who valiantly stepped in to dispel this ‘conspiracy theory’.
For as we know, Hong Kong Fluey — a.k.a 2019-nCoV — is nothing to worry about. Why it is no worse than the flu (which kills 10,000 Americans every year, don’t you know) (have you had your flu shot?). The problem with the Mail article is that it raises more questions than it answers.
Rather than get into the whole, “oh yeah well why are the Chinese authorities doing this…?” Let us assume, in order to ‘own the anti-vaxxers’, that indeed common or garden flu is the more serious threat.
The article cites Oxford University professor, Dr Peter Horby, who says, “ Most seasonal flu viruses have a case fatality rate of less than one in 1,000 people. Here we’re talking about a virus where we don’t understand fully the severity spectrum but it’s possible the case fatality rate could be as high as two per cent.”
According to Wikipedia (which is never wrong) the population of Wuhan is 11 million people. So let’s assume Coronavirus is just another strain of seasonal flu… and making allowance…