Cancer and heart disease are not contagious like Covid-19 is, why is this ridiculous equating done so often? It’s apples to oranges...

Also, some studies seem to suggest we’re actually undercounting the death rate [0]. Combine that with likely under reported data in Russia, China, and other countries, it’s clearly a significant threat.

I think it’s kind of crazy to say preventing potentially 10s of millions of people from dying is not a big deal and propaganda. Seems like searching for a grand narrative in something that’s rather pretty cut and dry.

1. Death is not the only health problem caused by COVID-19. Patients who survive are also coming out with persistent lung damage and respiratory problems. Nobody knows the very long term (more than a year) health effects either.

2. “Destroying life as we know it” is a pretty dramatic way of saying “Stay home, wear a mask when you have to go out, and wait until things are better to get your nails done.” Plus, lots of people are not even doing that! They’re out horsing around anyway, putting more people at risk and further extending the crisis.

The math based on your figured is .02 as in 2%, not 0.02%, and that would indeed be pretty bad but there's a dramatic amount of undercounting of the survivors so your numbers are a bit pointless. (Also if to be fair we're lacking a lot of deaths particular in Russia, China, Iran etc.)

Comparing death rates doesn't mean much if the number infected for covid is orders of magnitude higher. Even if it turns out to be about .02%, we are looking at a death toll like the world has never seen if everyone gets infected. And that's not taking into account hospitals becoming overwhelmed and causing deaths to skyrocket.