Over-reacting? It will be hard to say for certain until all of this over. Thus far, you would have a difficult time arguing that we have, as a nation, done anything but underreact. No matter how you want to break down the statistics, our country has handled this situation poorly. We've had more deaths than any other nation, and we're in the top 10 worldwide for most cases and deaths per capita.
Wisconsin's infection and death rates are relatively low when compared to the rest of the nation, but still high when compared to the much of the world. Cases in WI are on a sharp incline, and death rates tend to lag behind by a couple of weeks, so we should expect to see death rates go up for WI in the short term. Not to mention a (potentially substantial) new wave if/when in-person school resumes this fall.
Taking a step back, we're at 150K dead nationwide, and that's not counting the numerous cases that went untested before the person died. For context, the '18-19 flu season killed about 34K. We're at 150K after 4 months. With some very dumb math (I'm sure there are better projection models but I'm too lazy to look right now), that projects out to 450K for a ~1 year span, or 13 times as deadly as the flu. For context, that would be more deaths than all US soldiers in both theaters throughout the entire duration of World War II. That's assuming we don't get it under control of course, which looks increasingly unlikely with the reckless, nonchalant attitude many in our society have towards the Pandemic. That's also assuming that rates stay flat and that, for instance, they don't increase meaningfully as schools open up.
Additionally, cases and deaths only tell part of the story. Many survivors are having serious health complications well after they have "recovered" from the virus, and at this point, we have no idea how long we can expect those to last or if they will be treatable or cause lasting damage. Support groups are starting to pop up for all of the weird medical issues that those who have had Covid-19 are starting to develop. This is some terrible shit. Catching it and recovering doesn't guarantee immunity either, with some people reportedly getting it again after recovery. As cases and deaths rise again in what appears to be a second wave, heard immunity seems like a fairly distant fantasy.
So yes, if you're going out, and especially if you're going to be somewhere inside and/or close to other people, please wear a mask. Masks, even simple cloth ones, are effective at limiting the spread, and that effectiveness compounds as more people wear them. Of course, if you can stay home and order what you need online, all the better.
Also yes, there are many asymptomatic carriers. Some data suggests that nearly half of people who test positive are asymptomatic. Even if we don't feel sick, the only reasonable assumption we can make is that we already have the virus.
I can sit here and feel we are over-reacting and still understand the fact that we would only know if we over-reacted or under-reacted if didn't react at all. There's no possible way to factual say we over-reacted, thus, those who prefer to be correct will lean towards we have under-reacted. We can see the numbers and while they are not accurate and exaggerated, they still show it's not nearly as tragic as the loud moral high horse crowd is stating. I believe it is not as bad due to how we reacted in March and April. I think we did the right thing with social distancing, having people work from home, closing down some places, etc ... but once things started to flatten people demanded their "freedom" and now look where we are.
I struggle to trust communist and social Country provided statistics, especially comparing them to that of the US. In the US we have places reporting COVID-19 related deaths who died of car crash or other things simply because they were tested and then posthumously testing positive with COVID-19. These tests are skewing the numbers.
I cannot argue we (the US) have under reacted compared to other Countries because no one (that I've found) has made a valid case for that statement. Especially when the source linked above shows over half-dozen Countries reporting a higher death per million than the US. Even that website says the death figures are changed during the course of the pandemic.
The difficulties of death figures -- from the source linked
This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths. This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.
My personal take is the squeaky wheels who need some high-horse moral pedestal need to stop forcing masks on people. Educate people. Inform people. Let people see the benefits to wearing a mask without berating them, without ridiculing them. Let people know that wearing a mask does not protect you, social distancing protects you. If you must go into public because of something NEEDED, slap that mask up on your face, keep that social distancing and act like you're at grandma's place ... don't touch anything you don't need to!
Thanks for the thought-out reply earthquake!
Edit, I wanted to also mention the deaths are not the whole story. I've said this before, I'll say it again. We don't know the long-term consequences of having this virus. We could have less lung capacity (just an example, not fact) or who knows. So yeah we could avoid contributing to the overall death count, but doesn't mean we're not suffering. Speaking of death count, I couldn't help notice you killed SIX THOUSAND people!
Taking a step back, we're at 150K dead nationwide,
Even though your link states 144,103 COVID-19 related deaths, you rounded up to lean people towards your point. This is one of the several problems I have with statistics. People will not be honest. They exaggerate them to fit their belief. Good people with good intentions doing things dishonestly.