A whole heck of a lot of text regarding covid and the news
Just some points to weigh into the "things aren't the end of the world" narrative you're dismissing
1. Not a single person in the usa has died from lack of medical equipment or treatment, that's Cuomo's own words on the situation in NY
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/as-new-york-posts-highest-one-day-death-toll-cuomo-says-no-victim-died-because-we-couldnt-provide-care/2. The curve in most cases is pretty darn flat, my state has trended towards a flat 300 new cases per day for about 2 weeks, which is nothing. The rural hospitals in my area are pretty much totally empty. Only about 25% of our ventilators are in use, the majority of those being used for things totally unrelated to covid.
https://www.coronavirus.in.gov/3. Turns out being young and in your 20s does, in fact, mean you're pretty low risk. Out of 45,000 deaths in the US, number of deaths for people under 30 is... About 45.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/08/young-people-coronavirus-deaths/I know a lot of young people that are currently unemployed and staring down student loan payments, that would really very much like to get back to work. Anecdotally, SIL is a healthcare professional that had her job offer revoked when lockdowns started, finally got a low wage job caring for nursing home patients, got COVID, tested positive, and her sum total of symptoms was... She had a fever for literally about 4 hours and was back on her feet.
Her husband either magically didn't fet it, or was totally asymptomatic. But her and her husband continue to be nearing week 8 of unemployment.
Hospital activity here is so low and unemployment is so high she is literally a doctor that can't find work. This is not isolated, this seems to be the case for most rural areas.
I know a grounds keeper in Montana who is unemployed. They have 400 cases total in one of the largest states in the union. They have 13 total hospitalized. 13. Yea, they're gonna start reopening.
4. Death rates and general severity was initially drastically overestimated because of the high number of totally asymptomatic cases. We may actually end up hitting herd immunity before the vaccine is developed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/20/we-tested-all-our-patients-covid-19-found-lots-asymptomatic-cases/https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/europe/iceland-testing-coronavirus-intl/index.htmlhttps://www.foxnews.com/science/third-blood-samples-massachusetts-study-coronavirusWhen cnn and fox agree on something, it's probably true.
So in general, yea, i believe my governor will follow through on a gentle, restricted, phased reopening in mid-may, in an attempt to start income flowing again and preventing businesses from going under.
I'm not disagreeing with you that things may be dire for the next 6 months, but the scientific data out there says that having the whole country sitting at home collecting unemployment checks for the next 6 months is likely highly unnecessary.