200,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US...

[brooklynite]

New projection from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Flatline through the summer, beginning to rise in September.

[soothsayer]

1. They'll say, "Oh, this was the projection we shared

...at the beginning.”

Or, “We saved thousands of lives because the projection said august” or something.

I guess many people are just numb, and the continued shifting of the goalposts from 40k dead to 70k to 90k to 100k to 120k to no doubt 200k is somehow letting them accept this unacceptable horror.

[Squinch]

2. IHME is useless. We don't know how many will die from this, and we won't know till it is over.

Continuing to listen to this group of wahoos is the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

There are things, though, that we do know.

We know it will keep spreading due to our current behavior.

We know right now it is ramping up all over the country in the very places that will do the least about it.

We know plenty more will die. Whether that is 100,000 or 500,000 or 10,000 should not matter to people of good will. Because no matter how many it is, one of them could be each of us, or our loved one, or the medical person who will take care of us. So whether the projection is 100,000 more or 500,000 more or 10,000 more, we should all be doing everything we can to prevent the spread.

We also know that we, as a country, will not do this.