Notice that the flu was killing far more people than the virus until the end of March and that the flu is still killing more people than the virus in some areas. And it is also important to note that the criteria to define a death as 'Covid related' is very broad.
A big part of the reason for the virus' rapid spread is because most of those infected (60% to 80%) show little to no symptoms. Compare that to the flu. And the mortality rate is not level across all ethnicities. But if you are a white middle aged person with no underlying health issues, the mortality rate is well below 1%. Just how far below may never be known because of inadequate testing and selection bias.
I am really confused, there are currently 56,000+ dead in in the US alone 6 weeks, and we are debating the fatality percentages in single digits?
I fail to see how this matters, I thought most thought EVERY SINGLE life was important, and mattered, not percentages? Why is it important, other then reducing the death toll to zero?
Because it is an inconvenience to them. They feel they are not at risk so they don't care about others. We can argue the numbers all day long but in the end it is an awful lot of dead people.
I refuse to believe this notion that people who want to go back to work don't give a damn about death rates or those standing next to them. We talk numbers because if you're going to craft policy it needs to be based in numbers. If we're not willing to admit that people will in fact die not just to this, but a myriad of possibilities then there is no limit to what we shutdown and ban in society. It's not cold, selfish or detached - it's pragmatic. Eventually we're going to run into an inflection point where the cure is worse than the disease. Where that point is is up for debate, but what I won't do is demonize those for trying to find it.
