the cost is. No one is “ok” with it, but there are diminishing returns on further action. Similarly, we could reduce highway deaths by lowering speed limits to 5 mph and only letting people between the ages of 25 and 55 have licenses. We have to be comfortable with all kinds of risk.

But the thing about novel coronavirus is that it’s novel. We don’t really know the implications of letting it run its course like the seasonal flu. The indications we have strongly suggest it would be way worse. The current actions are about buying time for our healthcare system to get novel coronavirus and COVID-19 into that same risk bucket as seasonal flu.

May not get the mix of actions just right, and there will be costly overreactions. But the idea that we shouldn’t be taking unique actions here is terribly misguided.