Quote Originally Posted by CCFCC3PO View Post
In my opinion it is very difficult to glean anything from just looking at number of cases vs number of deaths. Firstly, each country uses different ways of recording cases and/or deaths. Secondly, each country tests subjects based on differing criteria. Lastly, even looking at some countries in isolation, their methods of testing and recording have differed over time.

In the UK, initially only people who were sick were being tested. Now, people are being tested for various reasons. My partner is getting tested weekly as a care worker.

The data I tend to look at is the data provided by the ONS which is extrapolated from various sources of data.

One other thing that I think may be causing a more favourable death to case ratio is that I think those people who are more susceptible to getting seriously sick have changed their behaviour over time. Care homes are being better protected than they once were, for example.
It is entirely possible to get an idea of what is happening if you only look at the outcomes in one country which, presumably, has been using the same or similar methods of compiling new cases and deaths figures. That's why I limited my comments to America where it's clear that more new cases than ever in June and July running into August has not resulted in the level of deaths seen back in March/April when the New York region took the brunt of the hit from the virus.

It seems unlikely to me that there is one reason alone for this disparity - an American equivalent of the care homes situation in the UK may be one of them and other possibilities have been mentioned earlier, with the possibility that the virus is losing some of its potency being one of them. As I mentioned, I find it more likely that the difference is down to the virus generally affecting younger people than before, but I may well be wrong.