In 2018, the last readily available year I could quickly find, 67,367 people in the US died from narcotic overdose. In 2017 it was 70,237.

That works out to 5,168 in a four week period, about how long these deaths have been showing up in the US.

I get that this is comparing apples to oranges, because we are seeing exponential growth of this virus, unlike narcotic deaths, but I think it is useful to keep the overall picture in perspective. We die from a lot of things, and although no one wants to die or their loved ones to die because of this, there are many more things that have a much higher mortal cost than this virus. Count me as one who believes that we are overreacting, and the economic damage done because of this virus will far outweigh the damage done by the virus itself.