I honestly am not sure how to put the idea that this is not worse than the flu together with the death numbers that we've seen in New York City, Italy, and othe

I honestly am not sure how to put the idea that this is not worse than the flu together with the death numbers that we've seen in New York City, Italy, and other places. Suppose the death rate had been inflated as Roussel et al. suggest, is there another more important metric by which to measure the severity of the pandemic or the necessary severity of reaction to a pandemic (though the death rate in NYC is definitely more than .2% because that much of the population has already died)?