Very large and very small numbers are difficult for us to attach meaning to, so comparisons help, as does rounding off and averaging.
World wide over 50 million people die each year (largely from what used to called, ‘ old age’),that’s equivalent to a thousand towns/cities of 50 thousand people. Monthly that’s around 5 million deaths; in a similar time there have been 100 thousand ‘C’ deaths
In Australia alone with 25 million people around 100 thousand people die each year or around 10 thousand a month compared to 50 ‘C’ deaths.
I know there is potential for exponential growth here, I just think raw data and the facts relating to virus transmission, natural immunity, likely severity and duration of infection and infectiveness etc could be given more widely and simply to people !
Manipulating statistics can be useful but confounds most people and charts of percentages exponential growth etc etc is just information overload .
IF the purpose is to solve the problem ,help and educate people then some simple known facts surely are better than allowing peoples fear and imagination to rule the day.
eg Transmission by sneeze and cough in close proximity is the most likely cause of infection, touching heavily dosed surfaces may also allow transmission, most people have mild symptoms ,once recovered are free of virus and are ‘probably immune thus acting as a block to future transmission of the same strain of virus’
9 out of 10 people over 70 recover from it . Where there is underlying illness , 1 out of 10 may die: So deaths from Corona may not be totally in addition to the normal number of deaths each year.
The sheer size of the worlds human population (over 7 thousand million) equivalent to around 2 thousand Sydneys or 1 thousand New Yorks, makes numbers of deaths in the thousands or even millions a very small fraction ; But are still very large numbers representing real people dying .
I do not want to make light of the situation and if you have close relatives who are at risk talking statistical terms is heartless . I just want to help people understand by putting things in perspective using comparisons and approximations that are easier to comprehend .
I think imaginations run wild with this for example I was talking to a woman the other day’ at beyond legal distance’! who was in a frightful state about people touching things, in particular she was angry at a little girl she had seen touching fruit in the shop the girl displayed no symptoms at all and seemed perfectly healthy. Such irrational thought is not going to help the situation, perhaps people have watched too many virus and contagion movies. So it is very important for governments to deliver clear, factual ,current information simple form to as many people as possible .
I have no reputation and little credibility in the field . I am an Ecologist by training and was a teacher of Biology for many years .
I hope your information gathering is broad and deep on all things ,not just accepting hearsay or what you want to believe, so that you don’t grow up like a mushroom or end up like a candle ,blowing this way and that , snuffed out by any ill wind.
Sources:- UNWHO, ABC australia, Australian Bureau of Statistics ,krisinformation.se, smithsonianmag.com
BE Jensen