COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US)

literally arguing with an idiot who is an EMS right now about the severity of this...says that the shutdown is just a power grab by the government and claims that the mortality rate in Italy is only .04% because he insists on using total population
right now Italy's mortality rate of those that have gotten it is 9.9% with over 50,000 yet to be determined. Recoveries only outpace deaths by less than 33%

To be fair mortality rate is based on total population. Case fatality rate is the number of deaths versus number of infected. So in this instance he is correct.