I believe they are talking about numbers in the context of the US population and arguing about magnitude of deaths in those terms. I agree that there is room to

I believe they are talking about numbers in the context of the US population and arguing about magnitude of deaths in those terms. I agree that there is room to disagree, but it is best to interpret the argument in the context in which they are making it. Part of the reason they are doing it in the context of the US is because of the political and economic nature of the current measures, which are drawn along national lines, even though the total magnitude on the world ignores national lines.