As of the close of the day yesterday 2,110/1M Population had been tested in the US. With a population of ~329,671,200. That means that approximately 695,606 tests have been done in the US. That is 0.21% of the population.
It also means that only 39.84% of those tested have actually shown to be positive. This number is likely skewed high, and maybe significantly so, for general population exposure since most of the testing is being done for people who have symptoms or who suspect that they have been exposed. Many who think they may have it are being denied testing and just told to self-quarantine, because their symptoms are not serious enough.
What does this all mean? Well, all the figures being touted for mortality rate, for example, are just guesses based on extrapolations from a very small sample of the population.
It also means that the Total Number of Cases figure means almost nothing. This is just a factor of how many who have been tested. But the news media keeps hyping this number. "The US has now surpassed Italy in the number of cases!" So what? The more significant number is how many have died in proportion to the population. Italy is at about 243 total deaths/1M in population. The US is at about 22 per 1M.
Chart as of close of day 4/3/20
I believe this is why the CDC does not publish "Mortality Rate" numbers for flu and pneumonia. There's no way to know unless they actually test a much larger sample of population.
Let's also remember that only between 2.1% and 2.6% of those known Active Cases are Serious (hospitalized) or Critical (ICU)... and only a percentage of Critical (I heard one doctor say about half) are in need of ventilators at some point.
Let's just all keep perspective and look past the hype to try to understand what the true numbers are...what they really mean...and what they don't tell us.
