Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

The information that I am about to share with you is quite disturbing, and it has some very alarming implications. One of the great mysteries of this coronavirus pandemic has been the widely varying death rates that we have been witnessing all over the world. For example, South Korea has had 8,981 confirmed cases so far. Of those cases that have been resolved one way or the other, 111 victims have died and 3,166 victims have recovered. So that would seem to indicate a very low death rate in that nation. But in Italy, things are very different. Up to this point, there have been 59,138 confirmed cases. Of the cases that have been resolved, 5,476 victims have died and 7,024 have recovered. Needless to say, that would seem to indicate a very, very high death rate in Italy.

Nobody really knows why this is happening. Scientists in China claim that there is more than one strain of the coronavirus and that one is more deadly than the other. So it has been theorized that the strain hitting Italy and other European countries is different than the strain that is affecting South Korea.

Alternatively, there are some that believe that certain pain killers used in the western world greatly accelerate the multiplication of the virus, and this is something that I wrote about a few days ago.

But the truth is that we really don’t know for sure why death rates in different countries are so vastly different.

With that being said, let me share with you the latest numbers from the United States.

At this moment, there are 34,717 confirmed cases, but the vast majority of them will not be resolved for some time.

Of those cases that have reached a final resolution, 452 have died, and only 178 have recovered.

Over time, I expect the number that have recovered to eventually greatly surpass the number that have died, and there are a couple of reasons why I believe this.

For one, it can take many weeks to recover , but those that die can do so relatively quickly.

Secondly, expanded testing will ultimately reveal a lot more mild cases , and most of those mild cases will eventually recover.

Having said that, the numbers that the U.S. is reporting so far are nothing short of horrifying.

If most of the country eventually catches this virus, it looks like the death toll could be in the millions. And at this point, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is warning that 80 percent of the population of his state will eventually become infected…

NEW York Governor Andrew Cuomo has warned that 80% of New York state’s population could become infected with the coronavirus and said the crisis could last as long as nine months. Cuomo’s stark assessment came hours after Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warned that the lockdown, currently impacting 80 million people across the country, could last 12 weeks.

Over the past few days, victims in New York City have been dying at a rate of more than one person an hour, and we are being told that New York hospitals are “like a war zone” right now.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

Over on the west coast, things have gotten so bad in L.A. County that they have mostly given up on testing people…

Los Angeles County health officials advised doctors to give up on testing patients in the hope of containing the coronavirus outbreak, instructing them to test patients only if a positive result could change how they would be treated. The guidance, sent by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to doctors on Thursday, was prompted by a crush of patients and shortage of tests, and could make it difficult to ever know precisely how many people in L.A. County contracted the virus.

In other words, we will no longer really have any idea how bad the outbreak is in the Los Angeles area from now on.

And without identifying those that are infected and making sure they are isolated, all hope of containing the pandemic in California is completely dead.

Of course many are hoping that the current “shelter-in-place” order in California will help slow down the spread of COVID-19, but what will happen when it ends?

At this point, many Californians are already getting restless. In fact, Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife seems quite concerned that her family will “run out of toilet paper, paper towels, and Kleenex tomorrow”…

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the actress wife of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, sent out a tweet on Wednesday complaining that “we run out of toilet paper, paper towels, and Kleenex tomorrow.” Her husband on Thursday ordered that all Californians stay in their homes except for certain essential excursions—on pain of being arrested.

The truth is that most Americans are simply not equipped to handle any sort of an extended crisis, and that appears to be what we are heading for.

On Sunday, the entire country was stunned when we learned that U.S. Senator Rand Paul has tested positive. Let us be in prayer for him and his entire family.

But pretty soon so many famous people will be testing positive that we won’t be able to keep track of them all. The attending physician of Congress believes that up to 150 million Americans will eventually become infected, and if that happens the virus will literally be everywhere.

That doesn’t mean that you should give up on trying to avoid COVID-19. If you doubt the deadliness of this virus, I would like for you to consider what a medical worker in Louisiana is saying…

“Reading about it in the news, I knew it was going to be bad, but we deal with the flu every year so I was thinking: Well, it’s probably not that much worse than the flu. But seeing patients with COVID-19 completely changed my perspective, and it’s a lot more frightening.” “I have patients in their early 40s and, yeah, I was kind of shocked. I’m seeing people who look relatively healthy with a minimal health history, and they are completely wiped out, like they’ve been hit by a truck. This is knocking out what should be perfectly fit, healthy people. Patients will be on minimal support, on a little bit of oxygen, and then all of a sudden, they go into complete respiratory arrest, shut down and can’t breathe at all.”

I have heard from so many people out there that believe that this coronavirus is about the same as the flu.

What a huge mistake.

Coronavirus victims have told us stories of being curled up in a fetal position crying for mercy as “blinding pain” roars through their bodies. As their lungs fill up with fluid, many report feeling like they can barely breathe for days on end.

The unlucky ones end up dead, but even many of the “lucky ones” end up with permanent lung damage.

Please do whatever you possibly can to boost your immune system now, because it looks like a large percentage of the population will be grappling with this virus at some point.

When New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli was asked if she was worried about catching the virus, she warned that everyone will be infected eventually…

“Are you worried,” I ask, “that you’ll get the coronavirus eventually?” She smiles. “I’m definitely going to get it. We all are,” Persichilli says matter-of-factly. “I’m just waiting.”

I don’t believe that is true, and I believe that there are many Americans that will never catch the virus.

But without a doubt it is sweeping across America at a speed that is absolutely breathtaking, and the death toll is ahead of even the most pessimistic projections that were originally issued.

A great plague has hit America, and we are still only in the very early chapters.

This is the moment in our history when everything starts changing, and the days ahead are going to be exceedingly challenging.