https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4586318/
You could have already killed someone without even knowing it by transmitting the flu to them. There's no way to know for sure.
US federal and state handling of the pandemic has been mostly terrible. But even if we had competent, honest leaders I doubt the long-term death toll would be much different. Community transmission was already widespread by the time anyone realized there was a serious problem, and by that point it was too late to contain the pandemic.
https://www.wsj.com/graphics/when-did-covid-hit-earliest-dea...
I sometime forget to not bother commenting on overly politicized things on HN. Your own links show 20% potential asymptomatic influenza infections, which is only a tiny bit different from the estimated 80-95% on SARS-COV-2.
Downvote away though.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7315794/
So where are you coming up with that 80-95% number?
If a strain of influenza suddenly spiked to higher fatality rates, less drastic measures could contain it because it's usually obvious when you are contagious with influenza.
Also, as someone who had SARS-COV-2 and didn't die, it was fucking awful and I fully blame the complete failure of US leadership for the current fiasco.