Good news or bad news? The coronavirus pandemic has sickened and killed only a relatively few people but has affected us all

摘要

In 1846, the Danish Government sent Peter Ludwug Panum to the Faroe Islands to investigate an epidemic. This physiologist-pathologist completed an excellent epidemiological investigation and made many fundamental observations, including that infections of people with whatever was causing the disease (ie, measles virus) led to development of life-long resistance (ie, immunity) to it. From that period until now, we have been informed and comforted by the knowledge gained from Panum’s studies ( ). The current pandemic of the newly recognized severe acute respiratory syndrome betacoronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) may very well change or modify our general understandings. Given that the world’s human population is about 7.8 billion, as of May 22, 2020 only ~ 0.07% of the population has been shown to have been infected with this virus worldwide ( ~ 0.48% in the U.S.A.). Unfortunately, ~ 6.5% of those shown to be infected ( ~ 6% in the U.S.A.) have died. These are frightfully large and wretched numbers, reflecting an enormous amount of suffering and sadness, not to speak of monetary cost, extra work and extra risk for first responders and hospital workers, the need for new tools, political unrest, unemployment, personal distancing, marital discord, school closings, food shortages, severe stock market decreases, inconveniences (the least problem), and the shockingly high rate of incapacitation and deaths among health care workers and other first responders; and these bare infection rate data do not take into account the huge number of people who have not been tested for the virus. About 3.4% of symptomatic individuals require hospitalization (7.4% of those 65 years of age or older), about 40% of transmission occurs from asymptomatic people, and 0.4% of symptomatic patients die (1.3% of symptomatic patients 65 years of age or older).