RE:RE:CURIOUS TO SEE HOW Covid-19 could actually be up to four times less deadly than feared, according to a controversial estimate.
A review of antibody surveillance studies — which paint a much clearer picture of how many people have really been infected — suggests the coronavirus has a mortality rate of 0.25 per cent, meaning it kills one in every 400 people who get it.
The new estimate was based on figures from 23 different testing surveys carried out worldwide, which suggested the actual mortality rate ranged from as low as 0.02 to as high as 0.78 per cent.
The study was led by Stanford University's Dr John Ioannadis, an epidemiologist who was among a trio of scientists accused last month of trying to make Covid-19 seem less lethal after they claimed the virus was 54 times more prevalent than official data showed.