Antibody test shows that 50 - 80% more people have had C19 than was thought (US)

Just done some more sums. If 81,000 people in Santa Clara County have been infected out of total population of 1,928,000, that's still only 4.2%, which is a long way from herd immunity.

My brain went fizzy just trying to follow what you wrote!

I'm not sure about anything Growstuff. I just got that out of the article AND misquoted, as you show!

I was always useless at Maths AND Science. Sorry!

Just read the article. It says "50 to 85 times more common" rather than "50-80% more people", which is different.

Are you sure about the death rate Gagajo?

There have been 2,275,782 reported cases in the US. A 50% increase is an additional 1,137,891 ie a total of 3,413,673.

There have been 156,104 reported deaths in the US. I'm pretty sure that's 4.57% of reported cases.

Good luck to your daughter's partner
growstuff- we need all the dedicated researchers and scientists to crack this!

My daughter's partner, who's a biochemist, is currently working for a company which is researching whether there's a genetic or biochemical connection to the severity of the disease. It's still a mystery why some people only have a mild version. If they can discover something, it will be a breakthrough because it would mean that shielding (and eventually vaccines) can be better targeted.

This is interesting research, as much as anything, because of all the caveats attached to it. I like to see those on this kind of research.

What we need now is for it to be replicated elsewhere and research to show if having the virus makes you immune it. Current, mainly anecdotal reports, suggest that is may not always happen - and that would be a problem.