It isn't that people would die from the virus (which they would), it is that hospitals would be completely overrun due to the length of stay required for COVID infected patients, and then you have a ton of people that are going to die from other health related issues because they can't get proper care.

While a short term isolation plan is impacting the economy, we are poised to come back from this quickly. This isn't 2008/09 - the banking industry is healthy and lending money, offering loan forbearance, etc. - that is very important. Everyone is going to feel a pinch - my wife was laid off due to this - but if managed properly, this should only be a small blip on the radar.

And I completely disagree that we could not manufacture, distribute and compile data from 350 million tests in a short amount of time. We could, and we should. Yes, there would be outliers, but we would have a much better idea as to the severity of the virus, who needs to isolate (especially those that are asymptomatic), and potential anti-body candidates.

Knuckleheads and incompetence isn't unique to the US, but it sure is in abundance recently.