true, but "most" people survived smallpox before it was eradicated, so I don't think the technical definition of "most" is the right standard to apply to determine the seriousness of a virus.

Among people who were not hospitalized or did not die from Covid, there are a lot of people who were laid up for weeks at a time. Yes, there are also a lot of asymptomatic or barely symptomatic cases (I think a lot of this is initial viral load), but there are also a lot of very serious cases. I personally know 5 people who were hospitalized from covid, one of whom died. All were my age or younger, and none were overweight. I can't speak to everyone's preexisting conditions though. But I also know a ton of people who were wrecked for weeks ("sickest I've ever been" level of misery) from Covid. Before Covid, I can't think of anyone I know my age or younger that has ever been hospitalized for a respiratory illness. Yes, you have people that get their ass kicked by the flu each year, but not nearly to the extent that I'm seeing / hearing about with covid.

And at the end of the day we had a respiratory virus for which we took dramatic mitigation actions (masks, social distancing, limited travel, remote work, etc). The mitigation efforts were so effective at slowing the spread of respiratory viruses that we only had an estimated 600 flu deaths last flu season. And yet despite all of those mitigation efforts that reduced flu deaths by 98% from normal levels, we still had 700,000 Covid deaths. 20x the number of deaths from flu in a normal flu year and ~1,000x as deadly as the flu under similar circumstances. So that's why I can't understand how people can continue to downplay covid. The facts are pretty clear. Plus you have virtually every medical professional attesting to the seriousness of covid and ER doctors begging people to get vaccinated. To say it's like the cold or barely worse than the flu (not suggesting you're doing this) is crazy.
[Post edited by BocaHoo91 at 09/30/2021 9:14PM]