Thanks for the info on the CDC and Johns Hopkins guidelines. I was not aware of their stated criteria for counting cases and fatalities.

I agree with your point on protecting at-risk populations. I once had a coworker who, when talking about "action items" from meetings, used to say: "If everyone owns it, then no one owns it." Along the same lines, I think it's likely that expenses diverted to "protecting everyone" could have been better used if they were focused on protecting the people who are actually at high risk.