This is counter intuitive, but a lower death rate means more will probably die. If the death rate is 5%, the CDC has a very good chance of tracing the spread of the virus. It also means that it is not spreading too fast, and we know about many of the patients. It is something we can win against.
If the death rate is 1%, that means there are over ten thousand patients out there that have few symptoms and are spreading the disease. And it means the disease is spreading much more quickly than we realized. At 1%, there is no chance the CDC will ever get out ahead of this, and it means almost everyone in America will get it.
So 1% of 330 million is 3.3 million. It would basically double the death rate of the year, and be 3 times worse than all the wars the US has fought.
And then there are the mutations. If it has spread that quickly, there will be enough people with the disease for it to evolve quickly. It is very possible that we would have a Coronavirus pandemic every year, just like we do with the flu.
So my question to everyone is does ANYONE think trump is up to this challenge?