Dude, you are not getting it, do you?
It's not the fucking Ebola, yeah, and it may be even softer than the flu for most persons but:
1) Unlike the flu, no one is inmune
2) It is highly contagious... probably more than the flu.
3) Some of the very few people that have bad symptoms usually develop a very bad pneumonia.
4) Patients with a bad pneumonia usually need ventilators to have a chance to survive.
5) We don't have more than a few thousands ventilators and it is very hard to obtain more right now because every fucking country needs them and manufacturers are overwhelmed.
6) There is also a complete scarcity of masks and other personal protection items.. Which makes anyone going anywhere near an hospital or a doctor, for whatever reason, to have all the chances to be infected.
In Italy the number of people needing ventilators to survive have already exceeded the number of available ventilators. Which, btw, are also needed for some things other than this covid thingy. In Spain we are quickly reaching that critical ceiling in some regions like Madrid.
This is not about number of deaths but about the medical services being overwhelmed and unable to keep giving proper treatment to the patients that need it. So every effort it is being focused in slowing the spreading of the virus trying to maintain the figure of people needing ICU/ventilators below the number of available ones... until everyone have already been exposed to it... or a vaccine is ready.
Get it now?
Spot on. If this spread 10 times slowly there would be no panic at all, because the hospital system would be able to absorb the increased load. My concern with catching the virus is that I am one of the 15% that get hospitalized at a time when there are no ICU beds or free ventilators.
I am also very concerned for certain family members who are old and have health conditions, I would be concerned for them though even if the hospital system wasn't overwhelmed.
As far as asset prices and bitcoin in particular, I think this whole thing is extremely bullish long time. Which will be great for me of course, I was worried in the short term for a while, but not so much now as the situation has changed because CBs and Gov fiscal responses are getting to the point of preventing any further decrease.
I fear for the real economy though. The downturn in the real economy will be long and drawn out, the workers will be affected by this to a massive degree. They will not get free money or debts paid off, they may get their debt delayed for a bit, but that's it. The rich and large corporations are going to be massively wealthier after this, keep an eye on the wealth divide it will go ballistic. Sure we'll all be rich from our Bitcoin holdings, but a lot don't have any asset, only their labour.
This whole thing is going to destroy the remaining wealth of the 99%, and as I'm getting rich from Bitcoin, I won't be fucking forgetting those who won't be. the suffering is going to immense.