Yeah, I read that anecdote, too. Saying “many people” is meaningless. A tenth of a percent of a million people is a thousand people. That’s “many people”, but the rate is quite low.

Facts: in the US, the hospitalization rate for covid is around 4.6 per 100,000. It’s half that for people under age 50. The rate of serious disease is very, very low...and this includes high-risk groups:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6915e3.htm