20 Facts About COVID-19

Some mythbusting for the end of the year, with references

Pictured: Honestly, just a stunning photo. This caption is just here to celebrate greatness. Source: Retha Ferguson, Pexels

In the last 12 months, fact checking has gone from a fun pastime where you get to make fun of Big Walnut to something of a life-and-death scenario where the myths that are promulgating online can have serious consequences for people’s longevity. Instead of impacting which berry you favor at the supermarket checkout, the scientific myths of 2020 might define how your government chooses to respond to a global pandemic.

It’s a bit less fun than it was last year to check facts, is what I’m saying.

Ah, the halcyon days of yesteryear, when I could check facts about hair dye instead of COVID-19. Source: Me

And somehow, some of the biggest myths about COVID-19 are still spreading. Given the global situation, I thought I’d round off the year by looking at some facts that are well-demonstrated about COVID-19, with references.

Enjoy.

FACT 1: COVID-19 IFR IS HIGH

The death rate of COVID-19 varies substantially by age. I and my colleagues demonstrated this in a paper aggregating antibody studies from across the world. We also showed that, even for relatively young people, COVID-19 is pretty dangerous — at the age of 35, about 1 in 2,700 people who get COVID-19 will die of the disease.

The IFR of COVID-19, by age. Source: Us

FACT 2: COVID-19 IS MORE LETHAL THAN INFLUENZA

Another fact that we have known for some time is that COVID-19 is far more dangerous than influenza. For younger people, particularly age 5–20, the two diseases are comparable (we don’t have good data on <5yo for COVID-19 so it’s hard to compare), but for anyone older than this COVID-19 is far worse.

A great graphic showing the difference in IFR between influenza and COVID-19 by Marc Bevand on twitter.

FACT 3: PCR TESTING FOR COVID-19 HAS A VERY LOW RATE OF FALSE POSITIVES