The new world, post smallpox that wiped out up to 90% of the population. That's setting quite a low bar though, it would still be about on par with the black death.
One could argue that thinning the population of the older demographic with pre-existing (and expensive) conditions could be a net benefit to governments with socialized healthcare. See Taiwan which has repeatedly had to refund their system because of an aging population and the related growing costs.
I'm not disputing your point, but with respect to Taiwan, the fact that visiting a doctor is almost a sport certainly doesn't help - An average of 14 visits per year per person:
>There is a high level of health seeking behaviour in Taiwan. It is part of the Taiwanese culture to take medicines or to seek medical help frequently, even for minor ailments.
>The average outpatient department visit rate is 14 times per year per person.
That's not what I meant. I was saying that there's at least 50% chance that you might be immune to this virus. Who knows, there might be 1000 people who were infected but never went to hospital because they got better without medical care.
There was no sarcasm here. The comment just states that the virus' 0 day fatality rate is at most 50%. Why are you offended by this fact? Obviously we might see some twists like the virus becoming more resiliant, and obviously we won't shut down all research. The actual death count of this disease will be much lower.
Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I've played plague inc.
It isn't that bad. It means that this virus won't kill more than 50% of population even if we were to shut down all research right now.