Ioannidis was wrong, though. Drastically so. Analyzing excess deaths make it very clear it's not the same severity as severe flu; see the chart half-way down on https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm.

At the time, he wrote (https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-a...):

> Some worry that the 68 deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S. as of March 16 will increase exponentially to 680, 6,800, 68,000, 680,000 … along with similar catastrophic patterns around the globe. Is that a realistic scenario, or bad science fiction? How can we tell at what point such a curve might stop?

It did exactly that.