New evidence suggests covid-19 experts badly miscalculated cases and deaths.

That led lawmakers, governors, health officials, bureaucrats and the media to frighten and mislead us.

Draconian official moves appear to have resulted from a flawed premise, according to National Public Radio.

The US lost 40 million jobs. Hundreds of thousands of businesses were wiped out. And the federal debt has surged to $26 trillion.

Mounting evidence suggests covid-19 is less deadly than 1st reported.

The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies in a patient’s blood rather than the virus itself.

The tests found many infected Americans did not became seriously ill. When mild infections are included in the statistics, the virus appeared less dangerous.

Expected fatalities

The best estimates for the infection fatality risk are 0.5% to 1%, said epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

That contrasts with predicted death rates of 5%. “The public is behaving

“The public is behaving as if this is the next Spanish flu,” said Jeremy Samuel Faust, a physician at Harvard Medical School.

Vaccine expert Paul Offit of the University of Pennsylvania believes the World Health Organization’s 3.4% fatality rate was wrong. It should have been below 1%.

The Chronicle has asked the SC Department of Health & Environmental Control to respond.

Latest numbers

DHEC’s own reports show stepped up testing is producing more positive test results but more than 80% are testing negative.

Fatalities are falling. In 3 of the last 6 days, no one in Lexington County died.

DHEC reported Tuesday:

• 7 SC deaths Monday and 1 death Sunday.

• 52 confirmed and 2 new probable deaths since July 24. Late reports are responsible for the other 47 deaths.

• 1,168 new confirmed and 7 probable cases in SC.

• Our county has 56 new cases, Richland County 113.

DHEC did not say when these cases were reported.