I don’t fully agree with Space (or even mostly agree) but I do think making an analysis of what number will die and how that number changes if we do or don’t do _____ is not, on its face, crass and beyond the pale like some are acting.
If hardcore social distancing and keeping restaurants/salons/etc closed changes the death toll nationwide by 5,000 (a ridiculous figure I am making up) I think as a society we have an obligation to discuss if that’s a reasonable payoff for all the other things that come along with those three months.
I feel this has become so politicized (equally so on the left, of which I will remind everyone I am a member of) that reasonable, logical, sober discussions of this are pretty much impossible. You just get rampant value signaling by all sides and the mindset that anyone who makes a slightly different decision/value equation than yourself must be called out as a heretic. It’s not helpful.