A new NPR report suggests the global response to COVID-19 may have been reached on a flawed premise.
The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus in a person's blood rather than the virus itself.
The tests are finding large numbers of people in the U.S. who were infected but never became seriously ill. And when these mild infections are included in coronavirus statistics, the virus appears less dangerous.
"The current best estimates for the infection fatality risk are between 0.5% and 1%," says Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers.