The country is devastated because every political leader in both parties became hysterical following the absurd hysteria produced by the "scientists", who were themselves either political or simply hysterical.
It is not "devastated" because some pandemic killed or disabled a statistically significant part of the population. As of today, a total of 1,693,850 cases have been reported, that's not even one half of one percent of the population. As of today, 98,468 deaths, roughly .0003% of the population. So the publicly available mortality rate data is .0581, a survival rate of 99.94%
Even the death rates are exaggerated, substantially exaggerated if you believe the "scientists" that say we need to stay "shut down" because the current figures underestimate the total cases by around 500%. So that would be 8,469,250 cases, with a mortality rate of .0116%. Its also significant that the 500% are asymptomatic...a sophisticated word for THEY AREN'T EVEN ****ING SICK.
The death rates are further exaggerated by the failure to distinguish between deaths of people with Covid but not from Covid. Its a distinction with a big difference.
Moreover, far more of a regional problem than a national problem. Almost half of all fatalities occurred in just two states, actually just the NYC metro area in NY and NJ. New York has 6% of the US population but 30% of the Covid cases and deaths. New Jersey has roughly 2.7% of the population but more than 10% of the Covid cases and deaths.
California is almost twice as big as NY state, but has 88% fewer cases and deaths.
Texas has 25% more people than New York but 90% fewer Covid cases and deaths. Florida is slightly smaller than New York, about 5% smaller, but also has over 90% fewer cases and deaths. In Iowa Covid deaths won't even make the top 15 causes of death this year.
Each death is tragic for the families involved but sympathy for the few cannot be used to justify harming the many, particularly when the harm is death and financial destruction-tragedies for far more families than have been impacted by the fall out from a massive shut down than will ever be affected by Covid.
History has dispositively proven that macro policy cannot be reliably made by "scientists" and much less by reliance on models, which are merely theoretical projections based on factual premises that may or not be accurate. The models have consistently and grossly exaggerated exposure, transmission, and course of Covid infections and deaths.
But hey, Orange Man bad...Russia...Ukraine...Hitler...AGGGHHHH!.
