This is not a new virus, just a new variant.
Treating it like any other respiratory infection would have resulted in a damp squib of a pandemic. A slightly worse then usual flu if that.
Early treatment, especially with the elderly would have prevented most of them from getting worse.
More then that it would have allowed people who just had your regular everyday respiratory infections like sinus, flu, bronchitis even pneumonia to be treated rather then jerked around with endless testing while they waited to see if you had the "right" type of illness.
But most doctors are owned by hospitals and hospitals suddenly had a big financial incentive to fill up their beds with the "right" type of people with the "right" type of illness.
And so Swabbing for Dollars was born.
Bkmk
“This is not a new virus, just a new variant.”
Is it a variety of SARS?