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A Unique Petri Dish
On the Media
English - March 12, 2020 16:00 - 8.04 MB - ★★★★★ - 8.4K ratingsNews Commentary News History news media radio advertising newspaper magazine npr wnyc journalism technology Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
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The COVID-19 pandemic has expanded our vocabulary with terms like “social distancing” and “self-isolation.” In an article in Slate, physician and Harvard Medical School instructor Jeremy Samuel Faust gave us one more: “case fatality rate,” or CFR. Initial reports have the CFR for this disease at 2 to 3 percent — but Faust writes that the actual numbers could in fact be much lower. Faust analyzes the "unique petri dish" that is the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and explains that, of the 3,711 people on board, at least 705 tested positive for the virus and 6 people have died...indicating a CFR of 0.85 percent.