Hey look: a new paper using a large sample size that estimates the hazard ratios for all the various pre-existing conditions that affect COVID-19 survival. Let’s see how I stack up:
Hmmm. Multiply all this together and it looks like my chance of dying if I get infected is 108 percent of the baseline, whatever that is. I don’t think the paper tells us. Still, this sounds bad!
But I suppose it’s not kosher to just multiply all the hazard ratios together. There’s probably either some fancy function for doing it, or else you just go with your highest hazard ratio and all the others contribute only a little. Still, I’ve nibbled around the edges of the internet for numbers that seem reliable (not easy), and my best guess is that if I get infected I have about a 10 percent chance of dying. This is consistent with the hazard ratio chart if the baseline level of death for hospitalized patients is 1 percent.
Anyway, just in case you think I’m taking Donald Trump’s idiocy with this stuff a little personally, you’re right. There are a lot of people for whom this is no game, and I’m one of them.
