SINCE I'LL BE OUT-OF-TOWN and unable to update my semi-weekly Wuhan flu updates, here are some thoughts to see you through the week.

At 4 pm Monday August 10th, there were 5,228,964 confirmed coronavirus cases; 165,934 confirmed deaths (an obvious overcount since one counted victim died in a motorcycle accident and many, many of the elderly victims had comorbidities listed in their death certificates); 2,678,413 confirmed recoveries; and 17,803 current hospitalizations.

The source for all this data is the Coronavirus Dashboard, which is updated regularly throughout the day. Now for the data.

Infections:

Assuming that deaths, hospitalizations, and recoveries are included in the confirmed case count, there have been a total of 5,228,964 (positive) coronavirus cases in a U.S. population of 330,100,070 (as of 4 pm today): 1.58%. So -- according to those numbers, 98.42% of Americans have not had the Wuhan flu.

But the CDC rule of thumb is that roughly 80%-84% of flu cases are unreported each year because the individual either had no symptoms or the disease was so mild as to not require medical attention. Assuming that rule of thumb applies to the coronavirus as well, there have been somewhere between 26,144,820 and 33,056,025 actual coronavirus cases in the U.S.: 7.92% to 10.01%. So -- worst case, between 90% and 93% of Americans have not had the Wuhan flu.

Several months back I quoted a study suggesting that 50-85 times the number of confirmed cases had actually been infected with the coronavirus. (I use that result in my estimate of the number of uninfected Americans in my coronavirus posts.) Given those numbers, somewhere between 261,448,200 and 444,461,940 (only 114,361,870 more than the current population of the U.S.) have had the coronavirus.

Deaths:

There have been 165,934 deaths (high, as noted above) so far. That corresponds to a death rate of 3.17% of confirmed cases, 0.27% of the total number (62,513,174) of coronavirus tests performed to date, and 0.05% of the U.S. population, the estimate you see in my bi-weekly charts. And it's still decreasing.

The semi-weekly charts will resume Monday, the 17th.