I think in all these arguments people forget the exponential nature of infection and death when this virus is not slowed down by distancing and all those other things every country has done when the virus started to get going. And that math was obvious and undeniable when the infections got going before any significant measures were being taken...or before they started to have an impact.
Infections, deaths...all those things were doubling every few days...anywhere from 4 to 10 or 12 days... and at that rate we would have had millions of deaths by now if nothing had been done. That was the curve that the whole world was looking at...and acted on.
So, yes, to one degree or another we flattened that curve. But nothing to stop us from going back there if we let it totally go again. We're not doing that...and the US is not doing that either, although parts might be closer to it, time will tell.
So if you want to compare it to a flu, compare it to the Kansas flu (also known as the Spanish flu) that killed around 50 million out of a world population of around 1.8 billion. This one might not be that bad if left totally unchecked (2.7% of world population), but it's hard to find credible numbers that translate to less than .8% on this one.
Anyway...what is it worth to save a few million lives in terms of economic pain? Every country in the world virtually has come to the same conclusion on that question. It's worth doing what we are trying to do.
Infections, deaths...all those things were doubling every few days...anywhere from 4 to 10 or 12 days... and at that rate we would have had millions of deaths by now if nothing had been done. That was the curve that the whole world was looking at...and acted on.
So, yes, to one degree or another we flattened that curve. But nothing to stop us from going back there if we let it totally go again. We're not doing that...and the US is not doing that either, although parts might be closer to it, time will tell.
So if you want to compare it to a flu, compare it to the Kansas flu (also known as the Spanish flu) that killed around 50 million out of a world population of around 1.8 billion. This one might not be that bad if left totally unchecked (2.7% of world population), but it's hard to find credible numbers that translate to less than .8% on this one.
Anyway...what is it worth to save a few million lives in terms of economic pain? Every country in the world virtually has come to the same conclusion on that question. It's worth doing what we are trying to do.
