I agree, we do need to open but people are dying because they refuse to follow the recommendations of medical authorities. Some refuse to wear masks and masks provide protection to others-not to the wearer. I guess we can't mandate that everyone wear a mask because the courts will side with the one that doesn't until enough people have died. I'm not an economist but it looks like lives or money-which is the most important? Both my wife and I wear a mask on our infrequent but rushed visits to the grocery store. We're in and out as quickly as possible.
You have to look at it like triage. When people are assigned to do triage they know that they will eventually have to say this person is going to die so that we can save 3 others. Its a tough choice. Right now we have to pick what will do the country more harm. Allow a virus that has a 98-99% survivability rate run its course OR have 20+% unemployment, which will devastate our nation's economy. This will create a bigger health hazard than covid19 could even dream of. Not to mention that the whole "flatten the curve" wasn't about preventing people from catching covid19, it was about slowing the rate of infection to a more manageable rate for local hospitals. Even with these measures the CDC was predicting 80% exposure to all US citizens within 2 years. So those people that have died from the virus, they statistically would have died anyway. In reality if you are concerned that your health right now would pose a significant chance you could die from covid19, you need to protect yourself. This includes not handling anything until its been wiped down with disinfectant, wearing gloves while you go out (and proper glove use) and not touching your face until you have sanitized your hand. Even if everyone wore a mask your risk of catching covid19 would only decrease slightly if at all. The main reason for this is covid19 is not airborne, its spread by respiratory droplets from an infected person getting onto a surface and another person touching that surface, then touching food they eat or touching a part of their body that has a thinner membrane of skin such as the face.
In short (too late, I know) everyone has an 80% chance of catching this virus, its just a matter of time. Those that will die from it will probably do so, regardless of the measures taken. These draconian measures will only ensure that the remaining people will have to suffer through yet another recession and possibly a depression that could be worse than the first one the US went through.