Why Are COVID Fatality Rates Dropping?

Thanks to Bill and Melinda Gates for supporting SciShow. If you’d like to reflect on the last year and the lessons we’ve learned through COVID-19 that will help us prepare for the future, head to http://gatesnot.es/3t072HJ to read this year's Annual Letter. Near the end of 2020, we got some puzzling but good news: COVID-19 fatality rates have been dropping. Here are a few factors that might help explain why we’re seeing this trend. CoVID-19 News & Updates playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsNB4peY6C6IQediwz2GzMTNvm_dMzr47 Hosted by: Hank Green SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Silas Emrys, Charles Copley, Jb Taishoff, Jeffrey Mckishen, James Knight, Christoph Schwanke, Jacob, Matt Curls, Christopher R Boucher, Eric Jensen, LehelKovacs, Adam Brainard, Greg, Ash, Sam Lutfi, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, charles george, Alex Hackman, Chris Peters, Kevin Bealer ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tbed.13819 https://www.journalofhospitalmedicine.com/jhospmed/article/230561/hospital-medicine/trends-covid-19-risk-adjusted-mortality-rates https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/estimating-mortality-from-covid-19 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971220321809 https://www.who.int/bulletin/online_first/BLT.20.265892.pdf https://nyulangone.org/news/study-helps-explain-declines-death-rates-covid-19 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348679/ https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2030340 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-020-0732-8 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2033700 https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4072 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03132-4 https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2021436 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01824-5 https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4763 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2918-0 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7686757/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23467492/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30632262/ https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(20)30470-7/pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344815353_Initial_Inoculum_and_the_Severity_of_COVID-19_A_Mathematical_Modeling_Study_of_the_Dose-Response_of_SARS-CoV-2_Infections https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/11/confronting-notion-face-masks-reduce-covid-dose Image Sources: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/global-epidemics-and-economic-impact-gm1211119538-351106811 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/abs-covid-19-antibody-gm1254123237-366470231 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/caucasian-and-asian-male-and-female-doctor-wear-face-mask-talk-and-discuss-in-gm1298126676-391056124 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/medical-ventilator-machine-gm1219641671-356823930 https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/hard-bed-soft-bed-and-body-gm871847950-145578825 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/asian-healthcare-worker-wearing-medical-gown-while-filling-patient-information-about-gm1289304398-385023849 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/box-with-pills-of-covid-19-immune-suppression-drug-gm1251004044-364966980 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/remdesivir-bottle-for-treatment-of-covid-19-with-hand-holding-syringe-in-bottle-gm1254726699-366831286 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/two-friends-holding-social-distance-during-walk-gm1225873299-360990055 https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/social-distancing-and-networking-gm1215988312-354398599 https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/stock-market-graph-crash-a-virus-gm1214059088-353071646