Should they be trying experimental antiviral or immune system therapies instead of ventilators? At the very least these therapies are not as invasive (or expensive).
These are not either/or. Whatever treatment is available or given, people get the ventilator if the current experience says they're slightly less likely to die with than without it.
Or maybe looking at the therapy in countries that show low death rates? Could it be that some countries got lucky with the choice of therapy? For example, Russia seem to show surprisingly low death rate so far - 1 per million, as per today's Worldmeter data. As per Reuters/30 Jan, their health ministry recommended "ribavirin, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon beta-1b".
> Russia seem to show surprisingly low death rate so far - 1 per million
Officially low rate. There could be low rates, just like there are no gays in Chechnya, or actually low. But it would be very surprising if any recommendation from January wasn't verified by now in other countries and used worldwide if it's successful.
Well, how about this, in New York on Apr 14, rate is 552/M. In California it is 19/M. This is 30x factor. Maybe people just do different things in different places. And this results in different numbers. It might be worth to examine what people are doing in different places.
