Originally Posted by
BearX220
I would not characterize prudent precautions in the face of yawning unknowns as "panic."
Public perception matters more. This morning's Johns Hopkins data (US only): 1,528,661 cases, 91,938 deaths, which is 6% of positive diagnoses. (Global picture: 4,922,137 cases, 323,855 deaths, or 6.6% of cases.) Those are the numbers people understand, and most will not opt to increase their exposure to a disease they think has a 6% chance of killing them. You likely would not board a flight with a 6% chance of crashing.
That all depends on a high degree of public belief / consensus / cooperation which is not currently in evidence. I believe a year from now we'll be looking at 150k-200k total US fatalities, continued flareups, and a lot of politically inspired resistance to community-protection measures, let alone a vaccine.
Except this leaves out how many people have been infected. Data suggest it's a larger number than thought and for a healthy person under age 65 there would be no or little symptoms. Even 200K out of nearly 330 million people is a very small percentage. Everything in life has risk. I'm healthy and keep my self in good physical shape. There are far more scarier things to me than COVID 19, at the top losing my job in the current economic environment. That's what the average person should be shaking over.