As of Tuesday afternoon, Apr. 26, the official CDC count of COVID cases in the United States was just under 81 million, which suggests just about one-quarter of all Americans have harbored the virus at some point:

Meanwhile, in the real world:

Three out of every five people in the U.S. now have antibodies from a previous Covid-19 infection with the proportion even higher among children, demonstrating how widespread the virus was during the winter omicron surge, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The proportion of people with natural Covid antibodies increased substantially from about 34% of the population in December to about 58% in February during the unprecedent wave of infection driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. The CDC's analysis didn't factor in people who had antibodies from vaccination.

The CDC published the data in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Tuesday.

Well, how about that!

You know, some of us have been saying since, oh, April of 2020 that the true prevalence of the disease has not at all been reflected in "case numbers," that the virus is far more widespread than official data would have you believe, and that consequentially it is far less deadly and far less fearsome than the official response would have you believe.

It's so nice to see the federal government catching up to what random commentators on Twitter have been arguing for the past 24 months! Welcome to the party, CDC!

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