One of the main reasons for this is that they just didn’t test very many people.
True, but they are testing more people now, as a result of H1N1 and trying to track the disease, than they usually do. In the process, the ‘tracked’ count is not significantly greater than with other flu(s).
What is significant on this flu is that the characteristics of those succumbing are different than traditionally. Usually, the old and very young are the types of people that succumb. In this case, it was the category of people that usually handle the flu well.
So the extrapolation of the positive tests to the untested deaths from flu like sympoms is reasonable.
Not necessarily. More people admitted themselves to hospitals with symptoms than would have during a normal flu season because they were wary of what those symptoms might mean. This would change the % of reporting to non-reporting and therefore change the extrapolation. I would prefer that they present actuals before they show extrapolation.
