2) Source: Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) (@SHARE_MEA). A lower PEF suggests a diminished lung functionality of the sample. Italy is not looking good. This could be driven by many characteristics:
3) When I run a regression (N=38,295) and control for age, self-reported health, gender, weight, and height, the PEFs in Italy are still much worse than in Germany (and other countries). The "Italy" magnitude is about the same as moving from "excellent" to "poor" health in DE. 
4) So lung function of older people in Italy, where the #COVID19 CFR is high, is worse than in other European countries that haven't reported many deaths (yet). This is not conclusive evidence, but it fits what we think about pre-existing conditions and smoking.
5) A cautious prediction could be that Spain and Portugal, where the no. of cases is still low, might soon see a pretty bad impact of #COVID19 on their elderly, too. @pilargargo
6) Thread with suggestive evidence on the high Italian case fatality rate: @mBarslund @HealthEconRdam @florian_krammer @c_drosten @bopanc @434Italo @_donalphonso @HelenBranswell @trvrb @OlafGersemann #COVID19 #COVID19italia #COVID19italy
@AlexanderKekule Lungenfunktion der älteren Bevölkerung in europäischen Staaten als Indikator für Vorerkrankungen, die COVID19-Verlauf verschlimmern.
