Sorry if there's already a thread about this, and sorrier still if it turns purely political.
But this thing has a mortality rate of 1%, they think, nyet? So if half of Americans are infected, which doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility, we're looking at in excess of 1.5 million dead Americans.
Not to mention all the ones who got very sick but survived, and not counting the people who died of other things that ordinarily could have been saved if the health care structure hadn't been swamped.
This is the kind of thing of which revolutions are born. Not talking about armed insurrection, civil war, that kind of thing. Talking about major changes in government. I would guess a huge overreaction in the health care area is inevitable.
The economic impact already is a disaster. Just the loss of income and jobs in the sports field is a massive hit. Travel, tourism......all sustaining major damage.
For those looking for a positive: It might kill off enough senior citizens to keep Social Security afloat for another few years. As a senior citizen, I don't take a lot of comfort in that.