Yes, that's possible unfortunately. That said our hospitals have not hit capacity yet and the private market has been feverishly working on making ventilators and masks, for example.
Not just possible, likely. The effect of the italian shutdown are materialising now, two weeks later, as did the effects of the Wuhan lockdown in China.
The US will get now what was done to flatten the curve two weeks ago. Which was mostly nothing. For the next week (probably two weeks), it is unlikely that the US curve will show much different than a doubling of the cases every three days.
The hospitals are still within capacity now; will they be if the cases double every three days for the next 10 days (which is likely)?
I really hope the effort to ramp up the equipment and places and support will be enough.
I think that as long as our hospitals are able to manage the influx of patients, we'll be more or less okay on the health front;
This is right, but it is a big question mark. Actually, given today's data, it is not a question mark, it is a nightmare, but I don't know the extent of the effort to get everything in line (at this point, no effort can realistically be too much effort), and I know the US are capable of incredible things. It is important to act now and act correctly.
And it would be important to help the system by starting strong social distancing, hand washing, staying at home and all the other measures required to stop the spreading.
I'm still quite concerned about the economy though.
The economy is a sunk cost. What must be done is to stop the virus as fast as possible to reduce the duration of the emergency and be able to get back to production as soon as possible without getting another emergency for having reoponed too early.
Part of me wonders if we're about to default on all debt to China as a way to (somewhat) save our economy, get out of debt, and also make China pay for this pandemic. This might start WWIII though but I bet this scenario has been considered at some point this month.
Pestilence is here. Famine will materialize if the economy is hit too hard. Let's hope nobody wants War, oherwise the thing will start to resemble Apocalypse too much.