I think we are seeing the best out of a lot of people during this crisis. I certainly don't want people dying unnecessarily.
As I may have mentioned early on, I've had a hard time matching up the actual threat of this virus against the societal and economic consequences.
I feel the usage of 'death rate' statistics has been incredibly irresponsible if not plain asinine, unless, of course, idiotic 'death rates' were used for a purpose.
The development or discovery of a viable treatment (Azithro./Chloroquine/Zinc) is something that should be bringing this thing to a quicker end. I know it makes me feel better, but it doesn't seem to be quelling things, or at least does not seem to be getting publicized.
Regarding stats, I'm also dubious on what are actual deaths due solely to COVID verses people that die who also have COVID, only as it may relate to the actual severity of the actual virus.
You're right in that death rates are a red herring. Nearly everyone will survive.
But focus on the case hospitalization rate, which is running at about 15%. We must not exceed the capacity of our health care system. When that happens, the whole system breaks down. People will die from what would have been otherwise survivable events as they are refused admission or refused ICU care based on wartime-style triage criteria.
Most estimates suggest somewhere between 40-70% of all Americans will contract COVID19. We have 372M people, and let's say 50% will get it, so that's about 186M people infected. At 15% case hospitalization that's MILLIONS of people requiring hospitalization. We absolutely cannot handle that many people being sick all at once. If we don't apply drastic public health methods to slow down this train, we will have a complete disaster and millions will die not necessarily from the virus but from lack of access to care. Italy was the warning shot for the world, and they have MORE beds per population than we do.
Simply put, if the hospitals are full of COVID19 patients, where do we put everyone with heart disease? Where do we put the car accident victims, the stroke victims, the heart attack patients? How do we assist women with difficult childbirths? How do we perform life-saving surgeries?
We are suffering economically now to buy the healthcare system time to add capacity. To increase testing, yes, but more importantly to add bed numbers, ventilator stockpiles and critical protective equipment.
