Up to 1.9 Billion Cases
By MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA AT AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY
A new mathematical model suggests that as few as 1 in
5 COVID cases were counted globally.
According to mathematical models, as few
as one in every five instances of COVID-19 that
occurred during the first 29 months of the pandemic are accounted for in the
half billion cases officially recorded.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization reported 6,190,349 deaths
and 513,955,910 cases between January 1, 2020, and May 6, 2022. These figures
have already elevated COVID-19 to the position of a top killer in some nations,
including the United States, right behind heart disease and cancer.
Still, mathematical models show an overall
underreporting of cases ranging from 1 in 1.2 to 1 in 4.7, according to
researchers reporting in the journal Current Science.
This underreporting results in worldwide pandemic estimates ranging from 600
million to 2.4 billion cases.
“We all acknowledge a huge impact on us as individuals, a nation, and the world, but the true number of cases is very likely much higher than we realize,” says Dr. Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao, director of the Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. “We are trying to understand the extent of underreported cases.”
Rao and his colleagues Dr. Steven G. Krantz, a mathematics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Dr. David A. Swanson, an Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside, write that the wide range of estimated cases produced by their models show the problems with the accuracy of reported numbers, which include data tampering, the inability to conduct accurate case tracking, and the lack of uniformity in how cases are reported.
A dearth of information and inconsistency
in reporting cases has been a major problem with getting a true picture of the
impact of the pandemic, Rao says.
Mathematical models use whatever
information is available as well as relevant factors like global transmission
rates and the number of people in the world, including the average population
over the 29-month timeframe. That average, referred to as the effective
population, better accounts for those who were born and died for any reason and
so provides a more realistic number of the people out there who could
potentially be infected, Rao says.
“You have to know the true burden on
patients and their families, on hospitals and caregivers, on the economy and
the government,” Rao says. More accurate numbers also help in assessing
indirect implications like the underdiagnosis of potentially long-term
neurological and mental disorders that are now known to be directly associated
with infection, he says.
The mathematics experts had published
similar model-based estimates for eight countries earlier in the pandemic in
2020, to provide more perspective on what they said then was clear
underreporting. Their modeling predicted countries like Italy, despite their
diligence in reporting, were likely capturing 1 in 4 actual cases while in
China, where population numbers are tremendous, they calculated a huge range of
potential underreporting, from 1 in 149 to 1 in 1,104 cases.
Other contributors to underreporting
include the reality that everyone who has gotten COVID-19 has not been tested.
Also, a significant percentage of people, even vaccinated and boosted
individuals, are getting infected more than once, and may only go to the doctor
for PCR resting the first time and potentially use at-home tests or even no
test for subsequent illnesses. For example, a recent report in JAMA on
reinfection rates in Iceland during the first 74 days of the Omicron variant
wave there indicates, based on PCR testing, that reinfection rates were at
10.9% — a high of 15.1% among those 18-29-year-olds — for those who received
two or more doses of a vaccine.
The number of fully vaccinated individuals
globally reached a reported 5.1 billion by the end of their 29-month study
timeframe.
The CDC was reporting downward trends in
new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States from August to
September.
Reference: “Global underreporting of
COVID-19 cases during 1 January 2020 to 6 May 2022” by Steven G. Krantz, David
A. Swanson and Arni S. R. Srinivasa Rao, 3 August 2022, Current Science.
The report can be found
here.