Interesting info. about the differing death rates coming out of China.
We don't know death rates and we certainly can not yet compare different areas because we are still too close to the point of outbreak.
At the outbreak is more advanced in Wuhan - people have more time to catch and either die or recover - than other areas.
Also the sheer number of infections overwhelmed hospitals so those with only mild symptoms are likely to not included in figures. Until a more scientific estimate of infected individuals is produced, we don't know if the death rate or higher or lower.
Death rates simply can not be calculated at this point accurately and this will only really be possible in retrospect
We might have a reasonable idea of the number of deaths particularly outside China as they are more tangible. But again we don't know the number of infections at this point. And outside China unless a link with another known case of coronavirus is made, some deaths might not be even considered as potentially due to coronavirus.
We can only really have an idea the scale of the threat of coronavirus in a vague sense of 'bad', 'really bad' and 'fuck we are all in real trouble' and that is based on pure numbers of dead rather than death rates and based more on who is dying. Are they elderly? Do they have preexisting conditions? Or. Is there a high percentage of the healthiest section of the population in terms of age and baseline health?
A lot of people are throwing about numbers relating to death rates without caveting or questioning what these numbers mean - and they don't mean anything very much at this point, because the data is too low quality and crude.
This is actively stoking fear. Not helped by people quoting rates of anything between 2% and 50% based on various types of dubious methodologies.
The death rates also fail to look at the number of severe complications which had significant implications for provision of healthcare services. The system being overwhelmed has knock on effect for the treatment of other completely unrelated medical emergencies. IMHO this is as important as the number of deaths because even if the majority of those with severe symptoms do recover there still is a problem. If doctors are so busy treating coronavirus, if you have a heart attack will you get the same level of care to prior to the outbreak. Probably not. You might well die as a result of that, but you wouldn't be considered the victim of the coronavirus outbreak itself.
My point is that statistics, particularly in medicine, mean very little if you don't think them through and understand their full context and the potential flaws.
Numbers only mean something meaningful after they have been analysed and studied to put them in this context properly. That's the whole point of researching rather than taking raw data at face value.
To stress, you can not 'compare' figures at this point because we have a significant portion of data missing which we are fairly aware of from news coming out of Wuhan. 'Comparing' death rates at this stage only highlights the scale of problems in Wuhan due to the sheer numbers infected, which again we already know are present.
It's all incredibly misleading and stressing this can't be done enough. Proceed with caution with anything relating to death rates. Look for other indicators of severity first as they are more useful.