According to the WaPo, it's likely that far more people are infected in Italy than we know about, and therefore the true mortality rate is much lower. Apparently the government is only testing people with "severe symptoms":
> The actual Italian death rate, they say, is probably far lower than what the government numbers suggest. The unofficial estimates assume the actual number of people infected with the virus — people who have not yet been tested — is massive. In other words, several hundred thousand people in Italy may be carrying the virus.
> “It’s a huge iceberg,” said Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan. “We are only looking at those who are sick.”
> Though Italian leaders touted widespread testing at the beginning of the outbreak, the government has applied tight guidelines for who can be given swabs. Health officials have been testing those who have severe symptoms and are in need of obvious medical care.
I’m definitely hoping it’s a statistical artifact. It would be very interesting if some country or ethnic group was genetically resistant to the virus, but that sort of invites the opposite to be true too, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Still, if it’s 3% like everywhere else, that’s horrible enough that the point of the person who said 7% still stands, IMO.
