Can we not infer from other nations, or is the US exceptional, precisely because of the kinds of people who want to bury their heads in the sand and not take action to make us exceptional, until it's too late?

Given what we've already seen worldwide, it's irresponsible to say that. Especially since this has proven to be statistically much less fatal to younger ages, youthful hubris is dangerous. It might not kill you, but transmission is just as dangerous to older populations.

Is it even right to say "older populations?" I don't have a better word, but maybe we should say, "very old" or enumerate the ages specifically.

Median COVID-19 death age in Italy is 81.

Average life span for an Italian male is 80.

Chance of dying every year for an 85 year old American male is 10% for any and all causes. Because... well our bodies get old and frail at that age. And even then, the vast majority of them survive COVID-19.

The death rate for the elderly from the virus (relative to the less elderly) is amplified by triage.

That's what they did in Italy and Spain, wait "to see if it's really bad" and then get hit full force with no preparation.

I'm very impressed that some countries think they're above others.

What advantage does waiting provide? It’s not like the disease is less deadly because 100 million people have it vs 100 thousand.

Theoretically the most efficient approach might be to quarantine only the sick or elderly, but that’s unlikely to work well. Doing absolutely nothing would cost millions of lives. So, I really don’t see any good options only some hard choices ahead.

PS: The only state without known infections is not testing people. Exponential growth is a bitch at this point.

If you feel like we’re not overreacting, we’re underreacting.

> Can we at least wait til the US body count reaches 3 digits before saying stuff like this?

Looks like your comment was posted around 3 pm Pacific on Monday. https://www.worldometers.info/ says we are at 85 deaths. Unfortunately we'll probably be at triple digits within 24 hours.

Only problem is that exponential growth factor. The line between "nothing happened so why did we do all this" and "everything happened, why didnt you prevent it?" is thin.

No, because the current US body count isn't relevant?

No, that's what "exponential growth" means. By the time the body count is in three digits, you're way, way too late. Frankly this should've happened at least a week ago as it is.