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Except it's not negligible, at all. Let's say, for argument's sake, the chance of death is 0.8%. Say coronavirus can't be contained, and 100,000,000 Americans c
by king_magic 6y ago
Except it's not negligible, at all. Let's say, for argument's sake, the chance of death is 0.8%. Say coronavirus can't be contained, and 100,000,000 Americans contract it - not unthinkable.
In that scenario, a "chance of death less than 1%" would kill 800,000 Americans - an unfathomable number. That level of death would plunge the US into far worse than the Great Depression.
- annabellas 6y agoCitation needed for “That level of death would plunge the US into far worse than the Great Depression.” 3 million Americans die every year. The risk of COVID-19 is also highly stratified by age, so looking at a single number like 0.8% lacks important context; the median age of death from COVID-19 is above life expectancy. Your 800,000 number (which is up for debate) also doesn’t take into account what part of that would be mortality displacement (likely a considerable part of it).
- king_magic 6y ago3 million Americans die every year in a normal healthcare system. Throw 2 million additional deaths (one of the early worst case scenarios) - hell, even 800k deaths - into a totally maxed out healthcare system, and you seriously think things are going to be all peachy?
- anoncake 6y agoYou got that backwards. 800,000 Americans sounds like a huge number, but it's only 0.24%. It's dwarved by the number of deaths that happen every year -- 2,813,503 (0.86%) in 2017.[1] Absolute numbers aren't relevant, or do you believe Andorra isn't affected by COVID? [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm