It's better to look at the South Korean numbers. They're the ones doing more extensive testing than any other country presently, and the statistics are probably closer to the truth. It's the reason the lethality rate there is around 0.6-0.7%. Still high but nowhere near the 2-3% some of the panic-peddlers are peddling.
The lethality rate could even be substantially lower. We don't know what percentage of the population is infected with mild or asymptomatic disease. It could go both ways:
The current measurements are accurate and the infection rate has been limited by direct intervention. This means the lethality rate is 1% or higher and the disease will see more fatalities than the 2009 H1N1.
The current measurements are inaccurate and the infection rate continues wider than deduced by current testing regimens. This means the lethality rate is much less than 1% but the disease is spreading faster than we can contain.
Given the South Korean numbers with nearly 200,000 tests as of yesterday, I'm more inclined to think that there's a large asymptomatic spread. This would be good and bad news: Good because it's not as dangerous as has been claimed, and bad because it's more likely to infect the people who will actually die from this disease.
So no, you don't really need to pay attention to the Chinese numbers. In fact, you can ignore them and come to pretty much the same conclusion, which is that we need more information.
It's better to look at the South Korean numbers. They're the ones doing more extensive testing than any other country presently, and the statistics are probably closer to the truth. It's the reason the lethality rate there is around 0.6-0.7%. Still high but nowhere near the 2-3% some of the panic-peddlers are peddling.
The lethality rate could even be substantially lower. We don't know what percentage of the population is infected with mild or asymptomatic disease. It could go both ways:
The current measurements are accurate and the infection rate has been limited by direct intervention. This means the lethality rate is 1% or higher and the disease will see more fatalities than the 2009 H1N1.
The current measurements are inaccurate and the infection rate continues wider than deduced by current testing regimens. This means the lethality rate is much less than 1% but the disease is spreading faster than we can contain.
Given the South Korean numbers with nearly 200,000 tests as of yesterday, I'm more inclined to think that there's a large asymptomatic spread. This would be good and bad news: Good because it's not as dangerous as has been claimed, and bad because it's more likely to infect the people who will actually die from this disease.
So no, you don't really need to pay attention to the Chinese numbers. In fact, you can ignore them and come to pretty much the same conclusion, which is that we need more information.