Coronavirus Data Is Missing A Baseline Mortality Rate For Those With And Without Covid-19

My posted comment to The Wall Street Journal, "Do Lockdowns Save Many Lives? In Most Places, the Data Say No: The speed with which officials shuttered the economy appears not to be a factor in Covid deaths." by TJ Rodgers:

The data is missing a baseline comparison. For a long time, the only people tested were those who has [had] symptoms similar to Covid-19, fever, etc. The number of Coronavirus cases of those tested is about 19 percent. The overall US death rate of those who tested positive is about 5.5 percent. Old people with secondary illnesses are the bulk of the 5.5 percent deaths. The symptomatic 81 percent, the negatives, did not have Covid-19. What was their death rate? Did seniors with secondary illnesses who tested negative for Covid-19 die at the same or greater rate than those who tested positive for Covid-19? We do not know. If the death rates of ill seniors with and without Covid-19 are not substantially different, why the hysteria and focus of all our attention on the Coronavirus? For example, seniors can die of pneumonia. Is there a difference if it is Covid-19 pneumonia or not a Covid-19 pneumonia? Probably only for politicians, mass media and medical reimbursement.