# COVID-19, infection fatality rate (IFR) implied by the serology, antibody, testing in New York City

## TL;DR

This paper estimates the infection fatality rate of COVID-19 in New York City and the U.S. using early 2020 serology and antibody testing data.

## Contribution

The study provides a U.S. overall IFR estimate of 0.86 percent using New York City's high infection and death data.

## Key findings

- New York City's high infection rate made it ideal for estimating the IFR.
- The estimated U.S. IFR is 0.86 percent based on early 2020 data.
- The analysis was conducted before pharmaceutical interventions were widely available.

## Abstract

This paper estimates COVID-19 infection fatality rate (IFR) in early 2020 before pharmaceutical interventions were available on a large population in the United States. The better estimates of COVID-19 deaths in New York City and its high COVID-19 infection rate made it ideal to accurately estimate the IFR. Further, we analyze the deaths and infections in New York City to estimate an overall IFR for the United States of 0.86 percent.