Anyone who thinks Covid-19 was/is not over-hyped need look no further than the pictures of people wheeling cartloads of tp and bottled water out of stores a couple of weeks ago. Irrational behavior directly resulting from the media-induced panic over swag guesses, at the time, about how the epidemic might play out.
I did an “Everywhere” search on TUG for “hoax.” There were quite a number of posts, but I could not find a single instance where a TUGGER called the Coronavirus epidemic a “hoax.” There have been quite a number of discussions about whether essentially shutting down the world economy is an over-reaction, but that does not mean people think Covid-19 is a hoax.
As has been mentioned in a few threads, social distancing does not save that many lives. Current estimates are that about 80% of the US population will be infected with the Coronavirus. Those who are susceptible now will be susceptible in the near future and likely suffer the same fate as without social distancing. The infection and death rates are just spread out over a longer period of time. Maybe long enough for some treatments to be approved and help some people, but likely not long enough before vaccines are developed and approved.
No one knows how many people will ultimately die from a Covid-19 infection, or how much effect social distancing may have on the outcome, or if killing the economy then spending trillions to revive it was the appropriate response. A lot remains unknown about the Covid-19 pandemic, and Dr. Fauci said as much in yesterday’s briefing. “You know when we’ll get the scientific data? When we get those antibody tests out there… Right now, we’re just guessing.
Speaker 30: (
01:24:45)
Dr. Fauci, how many additional asymptomatic cases do you think there are currently in the United States? There’s 330,000 more confirmed cases. How many asymptomatic, given what we’ve learned [crosstalk 01:24:56].
Dr. Fauci: (
01:24:56)
We don’t know. And even among us, good friends that we all are, we differ about that. I mean, it’s somewhere between 25 and 50%.
Speaker 30: (
01:25:06)
More than the current level?
Dr. Fauci: (
01:25:07)
In other words, about the people that are out there. Yeah. And trust me, that is a estimate. I don’t have any scientific data yet to say that. You know when we’ll get the scientific data? When we get those antibody tests out there and we really know what the penetrance is, then we can answer the questions in a scientifically sound way. Right now, we’re just guessing.