Ed,

As we all no doubt know, most world governments have been desperate to control the number of COVID-19 pandemic deaths among their various populations. But, interestingly enough, no government spokesmen have officially broadcast their respective case-to-death rate percentages.

In other words, just what are the odds of death faced by all people should one or more fall sick to the circulating virus in its different guises?

It may be interesting to your readers that Australia currently has a 3% death rate compared to the number of cases reported. As of 6 July 2021, our country has experienced 30,803 COVID cases with 910 deaths, giving us the 3% figure.

By comparison, the comparable figure for India is, for example, only 1.3%; for the U.S. it is 1.85%; for Britain it is 2.6%, and for Indonesia it is 2.75%. The worst country in the world in this respect is sadly Yemen at 19.6%.

As a whole, the world has so far had 185 million COVID cases, of which 3.9 million have died. This represents an international death-to-case rate of only a little over 2%.

An intriguing fact is that the many COVID statements continuously voiced by leading world health experts have always omitted any talk of the odds facing their citizens. To the outside observer, it may be that these rates would give too close a picture as to how the various governments have each coped with the pandemic to date.

Hopefully, all future death rate statistics will diminish with the passage of time and the administration of more vaccines world-wide. The death-to-case rate is, however, food for thought.

Oscar Tamsen, Yamba