330 million people. So we can suppose that roughly one person in every 3000 has died from COVID-19. That's a death rate for the year-to-date of about 0.03% of the overall population.

For comparison, that's about six times as many deaths as from auto accidents during that period, about four times the deaths by suicide, roughly 40% of the death rate due to cancer, and about a third the death rate by heart disease.

My takeaways:

1. There is no doubt COVID-19 is a serious disease and a potential threat to life, especially for those over 60 and the otherwise unhealthy.

2. The hysteria about COVID-19 is seriously overblown. We will lose many more years of life throughout the population from the economic repercussions of our extended stay-at-home quarantining than we will from COVID-19.

3. Medical science is not driving the COVID-19 protection efforts. Politics is driving it. As usual. And fear is fueling the politics, and the media are fueling the fear.