"I know it's not apples to apples, the estimated number of flu deaths is about 6 times higher than the numbers recorded by the NCHS, but there is every reason to believe that the actual number of coronavirus fatalities is also larger than the subset that gets confirmed. There has only been 4 weeks of data. Where is this going to end up?"
I don't know whether the NHCS numbers or the Coronavirus death numbers are understated. I doubt either are. But what is clear, is that Coronavirus is ramping faster than flu does. And Coronavirus deaths already exceed on a weekly basis, the maximum weekly "coded" flu deaths, including the 2017 worst flu season in 40 years.
This CV is a serious illness and we need to treat it as such.
Would love to be proved wrong.