That 48% case fatality rate is what one of my favorite doctors was talking about:
The introduction to a February 1, 2020 post:....I've mentioned that one of my doctors has a tropical medicine sub-specialty. His verdict:
Coronavirus is virulent, but not that virulent. It's deadly but not that deadly.[*]
His advice? Stay away from areas with active Ebola and Marburg, in fact all the hemorrhagic fevers; don't smoke, lose five or ten pounds.
He tells everyone to lose 5 or 10 pounds.
He doesn't seem all that impressed with Wuhan coronavirus.
And yes, yes Covid-19 has killed 400,000 people in the U.S. under President Trump, and 600,000 under President Biden and 5,145,239 people in the rest of the world but the last time I saw him he said the jury was still out on just how deadly the coronavirus is and he's part of a group working on why white folk seemed so much more susceptible than people on his native continent, Africa, and I should see if I could drop another 5 - 10 pounds.
—the introduction to March 2022's "So, About This Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever"
You may recall Fauci told Congress and the American people the CFR for Covid-19 was 3%.
This while privately estimating the case fatality rate at 0.2% to 0.3%.*
I tip my cap to the tropical and infectious disease expert who expressed what was already, in February 2020, a professional opinion that could get an M.D. canceled/possibly fired and who is quite jolly despite the fact he keeps his hazmat suit packed and ready for action should he be called to one of the world's hotspots.
From The Watchers, August 29:
The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in the country, with 5 794 confirmed cases and 2 786 deaths reported as of August 26, 2026. Cases have reached 60 health zones across six provinces as sustained transmission continues, according to the World Health Organization....
....MUCH MORE
Also at The Watchers, August 31:
El Niño prompts drought alerts in El Salvador and Honduras, Panama declares national emergency
*"Tony's Diary", Page 19 of 1141:
Feb. 8, 2020
....Tom Frieden called me this AM and we discussed various aspects of the outbreak. He and I are on the same page in thinking tht this is acting like a bad influenza in its transmissibility and that the denominator is much greater than 34,867 (above) making the case fatality rate (CFR) more like 0.2-0.3 % rather than 2.0%.
