The world is super early in the cycle. Also, China and S.Korea did a pretty good job of locking infected areas down. Could it end up being a lot better than 160K dead in the US? If precautions are taken and the virus is harder to transmit/less deadly that thought, sure. But experts seem to think that's unlikely.
Of course everyone hopes it won't be as bad as we think it might be, but when experts say it will likely be bad, why would you gamble putting yourself and others at risk and not take precautions?