Could not agree more! The whole thing with plunging the world economy into oblivion over this is ridiculous. Is SARS-COV-2 dangerous? Absolutely, especially to people in my age group (Anyone over 60 or so.). But if people stop to look at the DATA and ignore the EMOTION, you will see that since January, here in the USA, 5 times as many people have died of common influenza (the flu) than have died of SARS-COV-2. Yet we have nearly tripled the unemployment rate and likely bankrupt >25% of all SMEs in the country in response. CARES will do little to reduce this toll as all it does is kick the bill down the road as we will all suffer through increased taxes that will continue to depress the economy and increase the numbers of the poor.

All this has come through a perfect storm of an ignorant public panic, incompetent government response, and irresponsible media sensationalism.

By way of example, an educated public would have reduced travel and restaurants would have reduced seating capacity to maintain safe spacing without closing. A sensible government would have focused on education and publicity programs to encourage appropriately safe behaviors, and instituted a comprehensive testing program immediately in order to isolate and contain spread of the virus rather than a de facto declaration of military law. And a responsible media would have published factual data and rational analysis rather than sensational headlines that pour gasoline on the public panic that rested beneath the surface early on.

The New York Times is a serious culprit here where they published a manipulated and patently false report, since promulgated across the world, that the common flu only kills less than 0.1 % of those who get it. They took the LOWEST reported death rate in the US from the flu (12,000 in the 2011-2012 flu season) and divided it by the HIGHEST reported flu infection rate (45,000,000 in the 2017-2018 flu season). Reality is that the death rate from the common flu hovers between 0.9 and 1.2 % on a year to year basis (according to CDC data) which is approximately the same as SARS-COV-2. SARS-COV-2 is certainly more severe a threat to the aged, particularly those over the age of 70 or 80. In Italy, the death rate for those over 80 is greater than 7.5% while for those under the age of 60 it is less than 0.9%, of which most have compromised immune systems. But one does not hear this in the news, only that the death rate in Italy (where the average age is a full ten years greater than the USA) is over 7%. Well, that is because most of the people who have contracts SARS-COV-2 in Italy have been the aged because there are so many more of them!

Did we need to take serious measures to control the spread of SARS-COV-2? Most certainly, and many of the actions and behaviors we see today are indeed appropriate. However, taking these actions on a voluntary basis through education and publicity would have had far less impact on the economy and thus on the vast majority of the population.

Those who have taken these draconian military law measures will certainly say, 'look how many lives we saved.' But the reality is that they will have saved exactly zero lives. In the end, most of the people who would get SARS-COV-2 will still get it at some point in the next year or so. And those who will die form it will do so. The losses will be tragic for each and every one of us who is impacted either directly or indirectly, and we will mourn and grow and move forward.

As MiamiAirport said, the misery index from these government actions (combined with public ignorance and media irresponsibility) already far outweighs the impact of SARS-COV-2. It is time to move on and try to rebuild the lives of the millions who have been needlessly impoverished.