Mar 22 2020
Q: What is the historical average number of deaths in Italy per day (or year) for elderly persons?
A: In 2018, the total number of deaths in Italy was 636,710. This is 1,744 deaths per day on average.
In 2017, 341,326 deaths occurred in people 65 and older.
Lombardy, the most populous province, recorded the largest number of deaths in 2018 - 99,542. This is 273 deaths per day on average.
Q: What is this number for the US?
A: According to CDC, 2,813,503 deaths were recorded in the USA in 2018. This is 7,708 deaths per day on average.
Q: What is causing the shortage of ventilators in Italy?
A: According to Italy’s national emergencies ministry (known as the Protezione Civile), there are about 5,000 ventilators for the entire country. That makes for 8.3 ventilators per 100,000 residents. Italy has made an urgent attempt to buy enough ventilators to double the national supply, but medical equipment manufacturers worldwide are already struggling to keep up with the flood of orders triggered by the pandemic.
Q: What is causing the anticipated shortage of ventilators in the US?
A: in the U.S., according to official data from Johns Hopkins University, ICUs have a total of 62,000 ventilators. That makes for 18.8 ventilators per 100,000 people.
For comparison, in Russian state hospitals, there are 40,000 ventilators. That makes 27.3 ventilators in Russia for every 100,000 people. Moscow city alone (not including larger metropolitan area) has 5,077 ventilators or 40 per 100,000 residents (more than entire Italy!), while St. Petersburg has 1,898 ventilators or 35.2 per 100,000 residents.
The United Kingdom has 8,175 ventilators or 12.9 per 100,000 residents.
Ukraine has 3,600 ventilators or 8.6 per 100,000 residents - on par with Italy. This is striking because Italy belongs to G7 - seven IMF- advanced economies, while Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe. At $40, it has the lowest median wealth per adult in the world.
Q: Why are the number of serious cases and deaths so concentrated in certain locations in the US? As an example, Orange County, CA is only reporting 78 and has a population over 3million, while NYC has over 10,000 among a population of 8.5 million?
A: It is simple. The majority of cases occur around the major ports of entry (excluding land crossings from Mexico and Canada). New York (NYC) and Los Angeles (LA) are the busiest international airports. NYC and LA have the biggest population density, most immigrants, and significant income inequalities, not mentioning outright poverty and poor infrastructure outside of wealthy neighborhoods. Seattle suffered because it is a big hub for travelers from Asia.