There are almost certainly more people unemployed in America right now than was the case at the worst parts of the Great Depression, in the 1932-33 timeframe.
Is it worth it? To prevent 10,000 deaths? 100,000? I don’t see it.
And it’s quite possible this thing is so benign it could sweep over this country in a week and most of us would not even know we have been infected and built immunity to it.
To prevent this, we are ENGINEERING a short term depression, and what will likely be a 1-2 year recession. As a result of government policy, and nothing else. No other factors weigh in. Wall Street is reacting to the government reactions, not to the disease. They don’t care about that, any more than they care about the Rubella epidemic in Japan, or the West Nile virus wherever that is happening.