Population: 5.518 million (2019)
Total cumulative Covid-19 cases: 13,555
Total cumulative deaths attributed to Covid-19: 351
If you pull up a graph on the number of cases
gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
click on Finland on the leftmost panel and see the bottom right panel), it really looks like the second wave has reached the same magnitude as the first wave. The graph shows a peak that’s approximately as big as the first one in the spring.
However, the number of infections is really a meaningless number.
First of all, testing is done on an industrial scale right now. There are drive-in testing spots everywhere. In the spring, testing was sporadic at best and hard to get into.
The massive scale of testing being conducted right now is going to show more infections. The numbers then and now can’t be compared.
Secondly, the number of infections is largely irrelevant. If you’re infected and asymptomatic, the worst thing that can happen is that you spread the disease. However, the findings here show that up to 76% of those infected do not transmit the disease, not even to your spouse or children at home. This is a previously known peculiarity of the SARS family of viruses and Covid-19 seems to be no exception.
So, that brings us to the number of deaths.
If you again pull up a graph showing the number of deaths as a function of time, you get a surprise.
In the spring, the graph of deaths clearly correlated with the graph of infections. Now, with the number of infections growing rapidly, the number of deaths is staying very close to zero. There is absolutely no similar correlation between infections and deaths.
Why?
Late in the summer, some experts were saying that the virus is mutating into a less lethal form. Those reports, however, died quickly in the media. I don’t know if it was intentional silencing of the experts or just not “sexy” topic that the media chose not to report. However, the current statistics seem to back it up.
Of course, the prevention and treatment of the disease have improved, and people are getting tested and treated earlier, which would also contribute to the fall in the death rate.
Yet, for some reason, the media and authorities are always reporting the rising number of infections as a big concern. Nobody’s talking about the ridiculously low lethality of the disease during this second wave.
AC