New data is showing that the fatality rate from covid-19 is more like existing risk we were all previously exposed to in the course of our existence, and not like a second version of smallpox.
We need to give the scientists and medical professionals and industry more time to figure out how best to prevent this. There are many reports of 40-50 day illnesses in young people due to not clearing the virus. And the poorly named 'mild' case can be rough. It's (badly imo) defined as when a patient doesn't require hospital. It should be called moderate I think. [1]
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/what-coronavirus-mild-sympto...
An important thing to recognize is that the disease itself is not an existential threat (even smallpox wasn't; even the plague wasn't!), but our response to it skirts creating one.
That’s assuming no second order effects like a shortage of medical care making things worse.
For one year (or however long it takes to reach herd immunity -- and if longer, then death rates wouldn't double but increase much less). Assuming recovery confers significantly long lasting immunity, which I agree is not a trivial assumption (and one we don't know yet how reasonable).
Definitely not trivial, but -- in context -- means a reduction of life expectancy by less than one year. The US already lags Japan by 6; there's a lot that can be done to improve it by a year, with costs much lower than those currently spent to avoid reducing it by a year.