How many Americans/Floridians have had COVID-19?
Bottom Line: We’ve all been significantly impacted by the pandemic. This ranges from people who’ve died due to COVID-19 to those who’ve just been inconvenienced, but the impact is 100%. The infection rate remains a far smaller number. First, what percentage of people do you think have contracted the coronavirus at any point during the pandemic? To date there are only 5.6 million Americans who’ve been diagnosed with COVID-19 out of 328 million. In Florida, there’s only been about 576,000 cases out of 21.5 million people. So, here’s our first look at the infection rate of Floridians and Americans generally.
- US infection rate: 1.7%
- Florida infection rate: 2.7%
How did that compare to what you’d envisioned? I’m not trying to minimize the impact to those who’ve contracted the virus but as the country and Florida have put the peak of the pandemic in the rearview mirror (at least for now and hopefully forever), it’s notable how relatively small the infection rate has been. We are a long way from herd type of exposure to the virus and frankly it shows that we’ve probably done a pretty good job as a society in helping to stop the spread. The infection rate does show that Floridians have been 59% more likely to contract the coronavirus than Americans as a whole. Thankfully we’re pacing our lowest infection rates and total case counts since June. What’s happened in Florida compared to the rest of the country does emphasize the extra risk we’ve faced and continue to face if we’re not careful. Now, many suggest the reach has been much greater due to asymptomatic carriers, which is possible, however comparing positive test rates and outcomes to the CDC’s excess death data has illustrated that only about 2% more people have likely had the virus than what we’ve had diagnosed. What then are the takeaways?
- 97%+ of us likely haven’t had COVID-19
- Floridians have been more likely to be exposed than most Americans
- We’re seemingly doing a decent job slowing/stopping the spread of the virus
- We’re a long, long way from herd immunity and probably don’t want to find out what that’d look like prior to widespread treatment options and a vaccine
Here’s something else it shows. COVID-19 is 2.5 times more contagious than the traditional flu. According to CDC estimates, 20% of Americans contract the flu annually. We’ve clearly done a good job on balance of not contracting COVID-19. It doesn’t sound that way in the news and reporting day in and day out but that’s the case. Given how contagious COVID-19 is relative to the flu, half the country would have contracted the virus already had we spread it at the same rate as the flu.