in addition to what @SpicyLemonZest noted, the political left in the US (and its associated media) is pushing hard on the idea that this pandemic is the worst t

in addition to what @SpicyLemonZest noted, the political left in the US (and its associated media) is pushing hard on the idea that this pandemic is the worst thing to happen in 100 years, while the political right (and its associated media) is trying to brush it off as nothing, including saying it's no worse than the flu. the obvious prize that hangs in the balance is this year's elections. neither of those positions are reasonable, and neither will bring understanding and meaningful methods for moving forward. politics on both sides are adding so much noise that reasonable voices are getting drowned out. this pandemic is trending toward being about 3x worse than the yearly flu. maybe it's really 5x, but it's unlikely 10x and certainly not 100x as the most panicked are fomenting over. it's also not likely less than 2x, so it's not "no worse than the flu". that's real information that can shape our policy decisions going forward, rather than the political.