Because World War 2 killed 3% of the general population.

The coronavirus, in a single country, has killed 5% of infected people and elder people or those with pre-existing conditions are majorly overrepresented in infection rates.

>World War II killed 3% of the human population, and that's where we're headed if we don't stop it.

This isn't just wrong. It's irresponsible for you to be saying these types of absolutely incorrect things.

The chance right now that you will know someone you love being killed by Corona is really realistic.

I'm not sure how you think how critical it is. I personally have never had this issue and do not mind at all to lay still for a whole year to try to reduce the risk of this happening.

> The chance right now that you will know someone you love being killed by Corona is really realistic.

Unless all the people you love are over 80 (in which case the chance of them dying before Corona hit was not much less realistic than it is now) that sentance is just completely false.

Why spread such fear and misinformation?

It’s not only over 80s. It’s anyone with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, morbid obesity, and some others, which collectively describes large swaths of the US population.

My wife is a pre-kindergarten teacher and has asthma. I'm very worried.

I tell you a secret: if not traveling for a year means that even my grandfather with 91 lives a year longer, I'm on board.

You have your math wrong.

Unless none of the people you love are over 70, that sentence is completely true.

Everything from smoking to high blood pressure to diabetes to old age to obsesity is considered a "pre-existing condition."

Yes, killing 5% of infected people is serious, especially when viruses of a similar family regularly infect 20% of the population, and the population has no inborn resistance to this partical virus, and it is, provisionially, more infectious than similar viruses.

Simple models suggest we'll have 500k deaths or so by 2021. Of course, it could be less than that, but it could also be more. It's almost certain we'll end up with some days with a 9/11 worth of deaths; it's just a question of whether that's a few days or for months on end.

No we're not. That's absolutely absurd to claim. It might -- MIGHT -- kill 2-3% of people who are highly susceptible to it, people who are in their 70s+, people with cardiac and respiratory disease. Maybe. We don't even know that will happen, because we can probably save a huge percentage of that population as well.

You're fearmongering, and it's bullshit.

You're... reverse fearmongering? Downplaying?

Additionally, for someone calling others' claims bullshit, your numbers have no correspondence to reality. In Wuhan, the 3% number was for the general population; for the 70+ age range, it was ~20%.

3% of the infected, not 3% of everyone. You can't compare it to WW2 unless you assume everyone will be infected.

If you don't control a disease, the default assumption is that it infects a substantial fraction of the whole human population.

In almost all examples in human history, whenever a disease stopped, it was either because it burned through most of humanity, or because people decided to make it stop. They don't stop themselves.

That's a ridiculous assumption.

You're pretending we live in the 1400s. We don't.

You're pretending we will take no measures to control this at all. That's simply not the case.

> You're pretending we will take no measures to control this at all. That's simply not the case.

the US gov't has spent the last 1.5 months doing nothing to contain this at all. ending flights from europe isn't going to do anything to help if they aren't testing people and preventing spread inside the country

It hasn't existed in the US for the last 1.5 months.

We are testing people, and we are doing quite a bit to prevent spread inside of the country and out.

first case was Jan 21st apparently[1]

[1]https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa-coronavirus/

This is false. Studies done in Wuhan show that people with CVD have well over a 10% mortality rate. In addition, COVID-19 has the potential to cause permanent disability if it does not kill you first.

I assume the first sentence in your comment describes the rest of it?