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Isn't the preexisting conditions table incredibly uninformative and heavily confounded by the fact that a lot of these conditions are far more prevalent in elderly people?

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I think it helps point out that there is probably an underreporting and selection bias in the cases of coronavirus that get reported, precisely because healthy patients with coronavirus probably won't go to the hospital, and if they do they just treat for a pneumonia without doing coronavirus testing (what's the indication to make the cost worthwhile?).

> what's the indication to make the cost worthwhile?

That sentence doesn’t quite parse, but in China COVID-19 is treated for free whereas for regular pneumonia you have to pay whatever out of pocket cost after insurance coverage.

I meant that in a healthy patient with good access to health care, who presumably would not suffer tremendously from COVID-19, and be treated the same regardless of whether they had that or influenza, why get testing? It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist. In the US, at least, I doubt that the cost of care would change whether or not it is COVID-19 vs influenza pneumonia versus bacterial pneumonia.

Possibly. Or possibly the reason the disease is more fatal for elderly — they are more likely to have these preexisting conditions.

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