OK folks, who may understand this more than me.
Why is the fact that up to 80% of people who catch COVID are asymptomatic such a bad thing?
I do understand that means that they can spread it undetected.
But surely that also means that the death rates projected at the beginning are totally skewed. I seem to remember that the original estimate was 20% asymptomatic and of the remaining 80%, 1/4 would need hospital treatment, giving 20% needing hospital.
But if 80% are asymptomatic, then 1/4 of the remaining 20%, 5% in total would need hospital treatment, with death rates falling at a similar rate.
Not saying that its not sad that people have died, but it seems that a huge percentage of those dying are those that would have died if they had caught any other respiratory virus (and yes that includes apparently healthy, younger people, because otherwise healthy younger people die of respiratory illnesses every year).
The care home thing is a scandal, but even in care homes, there are otherwise very frail people who have tested positive asymptomatically.
So is not the fact that (possibly) large percentage of the population may not even get symptoms a good thing.