This is a strange case of difference in [fatality rate][1] between Chinese and Italian covid-19 outbreak.

In my knowdledge, fatality rate is a ratio between *deaths* from a certain disease compared to the *total number* of subjects diagnosed with the disease.

Starting from this assumption, I attempted to analyze difference in fatality rate between Chinese/Italian outbreak. Herein, I propose a reproducible R example for exploring this variable:

    # Import dataset from authoritative source:
    # https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-source-data
    covid <- read.csv("http://cowid.netlify.com/data/full_data.csv")
    
    # Subsetting only data from China and Italy
    dataset <- subset(covid, location == "China" | location == "Italy")
    
    # Fatality ratio: is the proportion of deaths from a certain disease compared to the 
    # total number of people diagnosed with the disease for a certain period of time.
    dataset$fatality <- round(dataset$total_deaths/dataset$total_cases*100, 2)
    
    # Generating plot
    library(ggplot2)
    ggplot(dataset, aes(as.numeric(date), fatality, color = location, group = location))+
      geom_smooth(size= .5, alpha=.25, color = "gray65")+
      geom_line()+
      geom_point()+
      labs(x="Outbreak duration (days)", y= "Fatality rate (%)", color = "Location")+
      theme_light(14)

**EDT:**
[![enter image description here][2]][2]
From this basis, I'm a little bit confused about such difference in terms of fatality rate between the two analyzed countries. In fact, China has the maximum fatality rate at 4%, while Italy at more than 6%. For this reason I've two questions:

1) Is my computation correct?

2) If yes, why such a huge difference in terms of fatality rate? 


  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_fatality_rate
  [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/02hyL.png