Death Rate in US (2017):
65-69: 1.8%
70-74: 2.7%
75-79: 4.2%
80-84: 6.9%
>85: 14.7%
COVID-19 death rate (China - 2019/2020):
65 - 84: 1% to 3%
>85: 10% to 27%
Without factoring in the average health of a 65+ American vs. Chinese person, COVID-19 death rates are in line with the expected death rate of the general population in the US. Where I'm going with this is I don't believe there is a 1:1 additive effect here. Now that COVID-19 is upon us, I don't expect the death rate among Americans over 85 to suddenly jump to 24.7% to 41.7%. It appears it is more successful in people with underlying conditions, and in some of those cases the underlying condition was probably fatal anyway. Take for the example the 21 year old that died in Spain. The kid had leukemia. His probability of dying was already higher than average. The virus just brought about his death a bit sooner. It's tragic, but likely wasn't avoidable.
Look, I'm not saying we shouldn't wash our hands and socially distance for a while. I'm all in on that. I just think that the longer this drags out more people are going to start digging into the detailed stats on this and making the hard choices that it's time to get the general population back to work while only isolating the at risk people. It's not today, tomorrow, or the next few weeks. But I think it will be in a couple of months at the latest.
There is a reason we don't design airports for the Thanksgiving Holiday rush and we don't design sanitary sewers assuming everyone flushes as the same time.