Coronavirus will radically alter the U.S. There seem to be several projections. Worst case scenario:
If no action to limit the viral spread were taken, as many as 2.2 million people in the United States could die over the course of the pandemic....
What we are currently doing:
Adopting some mitigation strategies to slow the pandemic — such as isolating those suspected of being infected and social distancing of the elderly — only cuts the death toll in half to 1.1 million, although it would also reduce demand for health services by two-thirds.
What we should be doing:
Only by enacting an entire series of drastic, severe restrictions could America shrink its death toll further, the study found. That strategy would require, at a minimum, the nationwide practice of social distancing, home isolation, and school and university closures. And such restrictions would have to be maintained, at least intermittently, until a working vaccine is developed, which could take 12 to 18 months at best.
The problem here is that this report was made before the assumption about the elderly being the most vulnerable was debunked. The death toll will be devastating, but the economy will be radically damaged also and that could also have life and death consequences although those will be more subtle and difficult to detect.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-will-radically-alter-the-us/ar-BB11pF6k?ocid=NL_ENUS_A1_20200322_1_2