A note about Corona.

[HairOfTheDog]

I read that 99% of Covid-19 deaths in Italy all had serious underlying health problems. Like cancer and heart disease. I don't know how true that is, however.

I read that a while back too, but think it's been proven wrong as more data has become available.  

One thing for sure, Italy is measured as one of the healthiest countries with long life spans.  It's second only to Japan in terms of percentage of seniors in the general population. 

So, since older age = more likely to suffer/die if infected with Covid-19, it makes sense that Italy would have a higher mortality rate than other countries with similar infection levels.

And, since Italy started social distancing and testing late (and thus the initial testing was done on those who were already showing symptoms rather than overall population samples), the initial mortality rates  for Italy may be inflated and get lower as more of its population is tested, confirmed to be infected, and survive.

Anyway this is a really good piece that was just released; it covers the variances between reported infection rates and mortality rates across countries.  https://www.vox.com/2020/4/1/21203198/co...outh-korea