I remember back in school how they told us that jumping from the Golden Gate bridge would definitely kill you. In all that time since, I have not died from jumping off the bridge. I have never jumped off the bridge, but I have also never died from jumping off the bridge. So, now I think I was being lied to.
Comment on Media zombies would be largely harmless if they lacked teeth and claws.
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 3 days agoIm not saying it wasnt bad, just in the very early days they were telling us it was going to be armageddon bad. The dead outnumbering the survivors and shit like that.
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
There was absolutely no point where anyone was claiming the death rate was over 50% based on actual data.
Early estimates were 10% (based on symptomatic cases) but with better testing proved to be closer to 2%. This is similar to the Spanish flu’s mortality rate.
It mutated to be less deathly from there, down to less than 0.5% for the unvaccinated. About as deadly as common flu strains.
If we had allowed it to spread in freely that could have been 350 million dead. That’s a large pile of dead people to deal with. That was the concern. It would have overwhelmed everything.