On Facebook and in other media, information is currently circulating according to which an infection rate of almost 60% has been found in Indian slums and an infection rate fatality of only 0.12% (in contrast to Geneva, where the rate was 0.64%).
An article by Science The Wire takes a critical look at the published figures.
What is not expressed in it: India has an extremely young population, while in Switzerland, the population is ageing. Since the IFR is much higher among the elderly than among the young, this alone can explain a considerable part of the difference.
It would be interesting to compare two samples with the same age distribution. But these would also have to be identical with regard to other influencing factors, which is illusory.
So, unfortunately we still know far too little about this new virus and there is too much room for speculation.
The following chart shows the distribution of IFR according to age. It can be clearly seen that this is much smaller for a younger population as a whole than for an older one. Source: www.eurosurveillance.org
ReclaimTheFacts
