[paulryanrogers]

> ... when the general population realizes they aren't at any significant personal risk

With 15-20% of confirmed cases needing intensive care and symptoms developing at roughly the same rate, it becomes a perfect storm. So deaths may begin with only the elderly or immune compromised, it likely won't stop there as the younger folks need care they can't get. Perhaps they survive anyway, but an unknown number with permanent lung damage and lower quality of life.

General population may come to any number of realizations. The underlying reality may never become entirely clear to any of us. Y2K probably could have been much worse. Yet the media coverage around the aftermath gave the impression it was no big thing.