Originally Posted by
Anson Harris
To me, it's sheer lunacy to say that 50k deaths require basically no action at all, but 72k deaths (current IMHE projection) requires shutting down the economy and trampling on the rights of every single person. Beyond that, it's a give-and-take. If the deaths were 150k, maybe we require some forms of social distancing. Personally, I feel like the deaths would have to be 500k or more to justify what's currently being done, AND the measures taken would need waaaaaay more proof that they are actually going to accomplish something before just blindly implementing them.
You realize you just answered your own question, right? 72k from IMHE is the projection with all the measures that you're complaining about. Also IMHE's model stops Aug 4. No idea what happens after that, probably more of the same. So your 500k to warrant action requirement would have been met easily if we had treated this like the flu.
Also, the only definitive proof that exists for a global pandemic mitigation strategies would be a prior global pandemic. We haven't had one of those in over 100 years. I'll let you know how this one turns out.