WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a Tuesday media briefing that “globally, about 3.4 percent of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1 percent of those infected.”
“This virus is not SARS, it’s not MERS, and it’s not influenza,” Ghebreyesus clarified. “It is a unique virus with unique characteristics.”
At a news conference Friday, Ghebreyesus expressed concern that some governments were underestimating the threat posed by the rapid worldwide spread of coronavirus.
“We are concerned that some countries have not taken this seriously enough or have decided there is nothing they can do,” Ghebreyesus said. “We are concerned that in some countries the level of political commitment and the actions that demonstrate that commitment do not match the level of the threat we all face. This is not a drill. This is a time for pulling out all the stops.”
Dr. Siegel implied that those comments by the WHO were disproportionate to the actual threat.
“They are a bunch of alarmists,” Siegel said. “They are saber rattlers. And look, the statistics they keep throwing out? Death rate 3.4 percent? Let me tell you something. Let’s look at South Korea, an organized country where they have been screening everyone, well over 100,000, now over 200,000 people. They found about 6,000 cases.”
“Deaths a little bit less than 30,” Siegel continued, presumably referring to the U.S. death rate from coronavirus, which currently stands at 15. “That’s a 0.7 percent death rate in an organized society with a great health care system. Guess what that reminds me of? Influenza. Maybe slightly more percentage wise than influenza.”
“This is a contagious virus, we’re concerned about it, we don’t have a vaccine for it,” Siegel added. “But there’s no reason to believe it’s actually more problematic or deadly than influenza.”
Newsweek reached out to WHO for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
President Donald Trump also had issues with the numbers presented by WHO. In an interview with Sean Hannity Wednesday night on Fox News, Trump said the 3.4 percent mortality rate from coronavirus reported by WHO was a “false number.”
“Now, this is just my hunch,” Trump said, “but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this and it is very mild.”
Trump also said that many individuals who contract coronavirus will not seek medical treatment because “they will get better very rapidly.”
“They don’t know about the easy cases because the easy cases don’t go to the hospital,” Trump added. “They don’t report to doctors or the hospital in many cases so I think that [3.4 percent] is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under one percent.”
While the U.S. currently reports 319 total confirmed cases of coronavirus, 15 people have died as a result of the infection. However, 15 U.S. cases are also classified as totally recovered.
Globally, 102,043 coronavirus cases have been confirmed with a death toll of 3,494. The number of recovered individuals, however, is currently 57,599.
