The mortality rate so far is 24,863 deaths out of 549,604 cases, or 4.52% (data current as of 8:28 AM EDT). This is higher than even the 1917-1919 H1N1 pandemic that killed 50 million people. With 397,210 active cases and a time to death of 2-8 weeks after infection, there is a lot of room for the death rate to increase. Additionally, there is reason to believe that this virus is comparable to the common cold in transmissibility, since it is, in fact, a killer cold virus. Since, in general, the more deadly a virus is, the less communicable it is, the Covid-19 occupies what I call a "sweet spot" for viruses, in that its mortality rate is low enough to not significantly affect its transmission, but high enough to cause millions of deaths.
There are a lot of hallmarks about this virus that have government public health officials alarmed. The purpose of public health is to prevent the worst case scenario; this is why the measures are in place to limit social interaction. If we become complacent now, millions of lives are at risk.
I should add that the suppositions about high numbers of asymptomatic cases are not based on any scientific measure. They are pure conjecture, models based on assumptions that themselves have no scientific evidentiary basis.
“I should add that the suppositions about high numbers of asymptomatic cases are not based on any scientific measure. They are pure conjecture, models based on assumptions that themselves have no scientific evidentiary basis.”
Duh. Of course there is no scientific measure to support the unreported cases. They are unreported. It is amazing that I even have to say that.
No matter how often you repeat it, your 4.52% mortality rate is complete bullshit - the denominator is grossly understated.
And if you believe the denominator is NOT understated - then show me your scientific evidentiary basis for arriving at that conclusion.