Looking at chart number 6, found in the word doc "what is going on in this figure", how can we expect to accurately determine a virus' fatality rate and rate of infection if countries are not accurately reporting these metrics? If a country like China, where the virus is thought to have originated, does not accurately report its rates of deaths and infections then can we really rely on this data -- especially when China's population accounts for a significant part of the overall world population?
It is not only that countries are not accurately reporting these metrics, it is also that maybe they don't know. For example, if you don't know how many people have been infected, how can you determine a case fatality rate? Testing would certainly improve this but tests are not readily available and only people who are symptomatic are being tested. Does this mean that we should test everyone? Big problem here is the more tests you do, the less accurate the test is and the more false positives you will get (Bayesian inference; we have known about this since the 1700's and we are still not paying attention). Tests also should have been in the past, two weeks before any other data is determined. We don't have time machines. China has done a lot more screening than the United States. Mortality rates are also a problem. How do we know that someone died because of COVID-19 unless we test them?