Is the virus becoming weaker?

[igot20joe]

How else would you explain the increase in cases over recent weeks but no corresponding increase in hospital admissions or deaths?

“it’s just I believe that there are other reasons for the lower death rate based on what I’ve read.

Sorry, missed some vital words from last post.

Pure speculation on my part, but with regard to the food factories and especially the chicken processing ones, I can't help thinking that they may not have been hit as hard in the early weeks as the initial waves were mostly in larger cities with London being hit particularly hard.

chicken factories tend to be more rural, in areas less exposed to public transport, airport hubs and populations who went skiing over Feb half-term.

"The reduction in #COVID19 mortality has multiple explanations: Improved treatment; younger demographic infected; possible 'mortality displacement'; likely role of 'infectious dose' (for more see below). And the virus' virulence didn't significantly change."

"Though, I suspect the lower CFRs and hospitalisation rates, as well as the possible increase in the proportion of asymptomatic cases may be largely due to how people get infected now, relative to the early stages of the pandemic."

"Infectious dose (i.e. the number of pathogens initiating an infection) is a well known factor for morbidity and mortality in animal experiments (including for #SARSCoV2). It is also suspected to play a role in influenza symptom severity."

"Outdoor transmission, social distancing and possibly facemasks are likely to have reduced the average infection dose in recent transmissions, and hence translated into lower CFRs and hospitalisation rates in many places. If this were true, CFRs might go up again in winter."

mobile.twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1285527376366051330

It would be amazing if it was weakening but we don’t know enough to say that yet far less to go back to normal