A relatively high percentage of people getting it require hospitalisation. It's not the bubonic plague, but unchecked, it will overwhelm any medical system an

A relatively high percentage of people getting it require hospitalisation. It's not the bubonic plague, but unchecked, it will overwhelm any medical system and the death toll will be much higher (it's already at least an order of magnitude more deadly than the flu). It's not just about one person's flu-like symptoms, which may make them one of the "lucky" one who can stay home and don't require more care (although read other testimonies in this thread because some experienced way worse than your bout of flu). It's also about people with other medical needs not being taken care of because of an overwhelmed system. There are only so many available beds, respirators and medical staff. There have been plenty of examples of that in the past months, in Europe, in South America, in NYC, in Wuhan even, where people are left to die at home or in hallways because there are not enough resources to care for them. They don't just die of COVID, they die of cancer, they die of heart attacks and accidents that would otherwise be non-fatal when cared for in time. We're getting better prepared, but not everywhere. Under-estimation is the danger here. Saying it's no worse than flu is not true. It is a lot more dangerous and insidious. It kills more and, left unchecked, will stress any local medical system to the point that even more will die. Many of those who get it will also end up with years of health issues. You may easily survive getting it, maybe even without symptoms, but are you OK with spreading it to your family, your neighbors, your colleagues, and their families? It may also affects older people but the original SARS virus -a cousin- affected mostly young healthy adults, with a much higher death rate. Who knows how this thing will mutate and how it will change if left completely unchecked to evolve in the general population.