Characterizing a virus with a mortality rate of 3.5% (globally, 2% so far in the US) as a “severe cold” is pretty misleading. The virus isn’t scary because of how many it has infected so far... it’s scary because it’s spreading at the community level which means there’s nothing we can really do to stop it, other than avoid contact with sick people (thus all the recommendations to avoid public gatherings). Had travel restrictions gone into place earlier they might have prevented widespread infections in the US. Maybe.
Influenza is a severe cold. It kills many people in the US every year. It has a mortality rate of about 0.1% in the US. So let’s look at some numbers to compare. The preliminary data from the 2017-2018 flu season shows that there were around 45 million cases of the flu in the US and 61,000 deaths. If coronavirus infections were to reach 45 million in the US, it would be 900,000 dead (at the current 2% mortality in the US). At the 3.5% global mortality, 45 million infections would equate to 1,575,000 dead. That is why the CDC and state and local governments and businesses are telling everyone to stay home. That is why the president declared a national emergency, and why the senate cancelled their recess.
