COVID-19 May Soon Lose Status as an 'Epidemic' Under CDC Guidelines By Matt Margolis Jul 06, 2020 3:51 PM EST
Despite the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, deaths have continued to decline and may soon reach a level where the coronavirus will no longer qualify as an epidemic under CDC guidelines.
A disease outbreak qualifies as an “epidemic” by the CDC when the number of weekly deaths caused by the disease exceeds a certain percentage of overall deaths, explains Daniel Payne of Just The News.
According to the CDC, “Based on death certificate data, the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia, influenza or COVID-19 (PIC) decreased from 9.0% during week 25 to 5.9% during week 26, representing the tenth week of a declining percentage of deaths due to PIC.” If the percentage continues to decline, it is likely COVID-19 will lose its classification as an epidemic in the next few weeks.
Some might scoff at the idea that deaths will continue to decline, but it’s been 21 days since COVID-19 cases started to spike and there’s been no spike in deaths.
Zitat It's been 21 days since #coronavirus cases started to spike, but deaths continue to decline. The median days from onset of symptoms to death is 18.5. pic.twitter.com/PU0XljwNkY
— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) July 6, 2020
Considering this data, it seems likely that deaths will continue to decline as it is mostly younger people getting infected, and treatments have also improved. A recent large-scale study conducted by the Henry Ford Health System also found that despite past reports and fearmongering by the media, hydroxychloroquine reduces the death rate of COVID-19 by more than half.