The real scare behind COVID-19

Here's the deal: most of y'all have read enough to know the gist of the disease and who it affects and doesn't. If you're young and healthy, you're safe. The older you are, the more underlying conditions you have, the better your chance of dying.

What's scaring the hell out of the people at CDC, etc. is the way this thing is spreading exponentially. While it's not particularly lethal from a statistical standpoint, cases are doubling in number almost daily. If that doesn't slow, even at a 2-3% death rate, the US healthcare system will be overwhelmed in late April or early May. People will die simply because there's not enough intensive care beds and medical personnel to treat them. It's already happened in China and it's happening before your eyes in Italy. Their healthcare system is failing because it's drowning.

The idea is to limit social contact to slow the spread to a smaller, slower, rolling wave of cases that can be absorbed by the system and the system (and more patients) survives instead of a tsunami of cases all at once that crush the system. Stay safe and take this seriously. Don't go nuts and go off and live in a cave, but at the same time, use common sense. If you are sick, quarantine yourself until you can get tested. Don't be the dumbass that says he's just got a cold and go spend all day in your local shopping mall or grocery store spreading disease to everyone. Call a doctor BEFORE you go and follow their instructions on how and where to get tested. We're all in this together, folks.