Please bear in mind that these flu deaths occur in a context that includes a large percentage of the population having been immunized via flu shots and lingering resistance from having beaten previous attacks of the flu. The coronavirus on the other hand is moving through a population with until recently virtually no innate immunity and obviously no vaccination measures in place. Taking these into account puts its higher number of fatalities into a bit more perspective (and still leaves us far short of previous estimates about how many people would soon die in the U.S). Overall, globally, based on the latest information, the known number of deaths is well below what many were estimating at the beginning of the year, and we are now several months into this. This is worth keeping in mind too.

Also worth noting that the whole world went through two different pandemics in the 50's and 60s in which over 1 million people died worldwide. Things went back to normal quite soon afterwards and much less hysteria about shutting down economies, borders and all social life was evident. (in both of these pandemics over 100,000 people in the U.S alone also died)

Hey, thanks for the thoughtful response.

Yeah, I keep flipping between feeling exasperated by the situation, and then remembering the perspective you've detailed here.

Side note, I think you mean adaptive immunity, this is the part of the immune system creates immunological memory. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_immune_system

Innate immunity is the non-specific part of the immune system and includes aspects such as removal of foreign substances, physical and chemical barriers (eg, skin, clotting factors in blood) and other anatomical barriers like the blood-brain barrier. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innate_immune_system#Anatomica...

Yes, apologies, adaptive immunity is what I was referring to, slipped up on the terms there,