At the time of this writing, Facebook is reporting 1,612,646 confirmed cases worldwide with 96,787 deaths and 361,377 recovered.
In the USA, those numbers are 466,299 confirmed cases, 16,686 deaths with only 26,522 recovered.
The part of the numbers above that seem to draw the most question is those recovered.
In other words, we hear about confirmed cases and deaths, which are hard numbers as far as we can tell. However, what does recovered mean exactly? Were they infected with little or no symptoms or deathly ill?
Oh, how many people have it and never develop symptoms? Or had it and didn't know it was COVID-19. Only by testing everyone would we know.
Mid America Live posed a question to the Bates County Health Center- will the health center report the disposition of the six current area patients with COVID-19? Whether they recover or not, or even how they are doing?
No. It appears due to HIPAA rules, the health department can only report confirmed cases and deaths.
So where do the recovered numbers come from... doctors? The patients themselves? It's unclear at any level, which makes sense- this is all new to us. Including the confusion regarding how doctors fill out a death certificate, for example, was the death truly due to COVID-19 or other complications that arose from underlying health or other conditions that might have been aggravated by something else as well, such as a severe case of the flu? And just because the patient had COVID-19 in their system but died from say, a heart attack, will the listed cause of death be from...which?
One thing for certain is that we don't know all the answers. There are many variables in the whole equation such as are doctors overall being specific about death or recovery being from COVID-19 or any Coronavirus. There are many types of Coronavirus strains, most of us have them and generally they don't result in more than a common cold or a season flu.
While there are a ton of conspiracy theories floating around, it seems safe to say that COVID-19 seems to pick and choose its victims based on age, overall health, possibly race and gender as well.
The point? We need to remain vigilant and follow the guidelines given until we know more. These are strange, scary times. But we have to keep a clear mind and stay calm. It's hard, but remember our ancestors went through the Spanish flu, the Great Depression and other hardships.
We can do it too.