>>14232931There are three different ways to measure covid mortality rates, all of which have niche uses and varying degrees of reliability.
Basically its:
Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) = chance of dying if you are infected. Not all people will become infected.
Case Fatality Rate (CFR) =chance of dying if you become sick with Covid. Not all people infected with covid will become seriously ill.
Crude Mortality Rate (CMR) = chance of dying within a population. Not all people will become infected and those who do become infected may not get seriously ill
Obviously the CMR will be the lowest rate and of most interest to the average person. The CFR will be of most interest to those gauging the impact of the virus should it spread rapidly and have an high infection rate ( which covid does ). The IFR will of greater interest to those in the medical sector dealing with covid patients and managing resources.
Things can be further complicated ( or made more clear if you prefer ) if you break down each rate by particular data sets. For example by age. Covid has a far greater mortality rate for older people ( 65+). You mention obesity, that is another data set and it does indeed carry a higher mortality rate. As does having a comorbidity.
Is Covid over-hyped? That depends on who you are. For the vast majority of fit young people its barely worth worrying about. For old people, unfit people, and those with comorbidity, it is not.
You can ask a similar question with regard to a completely different topic. Are the dangers of crossing the street over hyped? Depends, are you blind and live in big 3rd world city? If so, no.
But yours is more of a political question. I think you are really asking: Is the government and social response to covid unnecessary compared to the potential deaths it could cause? I dont see the general public becoming control freaks when someone refuse an influenza vaccine.
