(1) Follow-up: Why are there so many more deaths in #Italy compared to #SouthKorea and other countries due to #COVID19? One potential reason: Many more old people got infected and then died in Italy than in South Korea. Evidence: See the attached age distribution of the cases. 
(2) Numbers are a few days old, N=7,134 in SK and N=8,026 in IT. Sources: News1, @Corriere. Case fatality rate in SK of the cases 70+ years was 5.15, which is close to overall CFR in IT. Suggests that if SK cases had same age as IT cases, we would see many more deaths in SK.
(3) Still, could be that IT hasn't tested many young people and hence hasn't found many infected among them. But absolute no. of cases at age 70+ differs strongly between the two countries, and these are the cases that should appear first in the statistics due to symptoms.
(4) More countries? Germany @rki_de has published ages of 648 cases, but (of course) on a different age scale. Aggregating age groups a bit more shows that DE has an even lower share of old people among the infected than SK (and has also had fewer deaths, only 3 so far).
(5) Is this good or bad news? Well - it could mean that DE will not be overwhelmed with critical cases as quickly as IT. BUT as soon as that many old people become infected in DE, US,... as in IT, the burden on hospitals will increase similarly and deaths will rise.
(6) That's why quarantine, social isolation, and protection of the elderly are so important at the moment.; still valuable lessons to learn from SK. Why does SK have so many young cases? Maybe due to the outbreak among sect community, which might consist of rather young people.
Thread on age structure of #COVID19 cases and why we see way more deaths in Italy than elsewhere: @simonasiri @simongerman600 @ScottAdamsSays @mBarslund @c_drosten @AlexanderKekule @kakape @DrEricDing @MackayIM @HelenBranswell #italylockdown #covid19italy #COVID19deutschland
Ein Verdacht, warum die Situation mit #coronavirus in Deutschland bisher noch nicht eskaliert. Aber das kann sich ändern. @argonerd @olivergorus @_donalphonso @OlafGersemann
@BaldwinRE @CEPS_thinktank A follow-up on reasons for the #coronavirus situation in Italy vs. other countries.
(7) Age distribution of 755 cases in France on March 7 (@santeprevention). Fewer older infected than in Italy, more than in Germany. France had 224 cases >64yrs and 11 deaths by then. If we assume they were all >64yrs, implied CFR>64yrs is 5, which is in the ballpark.
