Why Germany's Coronavirus Death Rate Is Far Lower Than In Other Countries

[Yavin4]

Some way. Some how. I will move to Germany if Trump is re-elected.

Answer: Testing.

Germany's low fatality rate is because of his country's ability to test early and often. He estimates Germany has been testing around 120,000 people a week for COVID-19 during the monthlong period from late February to now, when it's reached epidemic proportions in the country, the most extensive testing regimen in the world.

In other words, Germany's equivalent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the Robert Koch Institute — makes recommendations but does not call the shots on testing for the entire country. Germany's 16 federal states make their own decisions on coronavirus testing because each of them is responsible for their own health care systems.

When Drosten's university medical center developed what became the test recommended by the World Health Organization, they rolled these tests out to their colleagues throughout Germany in January.

"And they of course rolled this out to labs they know in the periphery and to hospital labs in the area where they are situated," Drosten said. "This created a situation where, let's say, by the beginning or middle of February, testing was already in place, broadly."

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/25/820595489/why-germanys-coronavirus-death-rate-is-far-lower-than-in-other-countries?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[SunSeeker]

1. K & R

[CountAllVotes]

2. Answer: Testing

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TESTING SAVES LIVES!!!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Testing by itself doesn't save lives.

But it does give more realistic information.

For example. Last year between 270,000 and 330,00 people were hospitalized because of influenza. I have no idea why the number range is so large, but anyway, about 30,000 died. If you think that every person with flu was hospitalized, it would have a horrifying death rate of between 9% and 11%. In reality, far more people had flu, many of whom never even saw a doctor. So while influenza can be serious, it's not a death sentence.

Same here. This disease is serious, but it's not an automatic death sentence, not even if you are elderly. Part of what is making it so bad is that people can be asymptomatic and pass it on. Which is an important factor in how it has spread so fast and so far.

Whatever the worst case scenario is, the vast majority of people are going to survive this.

[Staph]

4. A nursing home in West Virginia proved the same thing -- testing works!

One of their patients was diagnosed on a Sunday. By Tuesday, all of the 98 residents and most of the 150 staff had been tested, and the results were back by Wednesday - 21 residents and 8 staff tested positive. Most of those who tested positive had no symptoms. The nursing home set up an isolation unit for the positive. Two weeks later, two residents were in local hospitals on ventilators and all the rest are recovering.

They had some great advantages, being located between two medical centers who immediately jumped in to help with test kits and lab results. At that point, the CDC still said that only those with symptoms or those who had traveled should be tested. Sundale Nursing Home and WVU Medical Center ignored that guidance and got the job done.

The whole story:

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/coronavirus/a-wv-nursing-home-had-29-covid-19-cases-heres-how-they-contained-the-initial/article_bb4394c4-8583-5e77-b62c-aa6943a362ef.html