People are scared because we live in a society in which it is easy to control mass thinking. Yes, it is a new virus, and just like any new virus, there will be deaths. OK, the USA is now the leader in cases, and people are dying daily...yet the number of people that have recovered in the US, exponentially leaped deaths in the past few days. What sounds scarier 30K people have died from this, or 140K have already recovered. Hell, h1N1 killed over 200K people.
The problem with the social distancing theory is that you won't know if this help for weeks. Those being tested (and it increases as more tests become available), were those that were really sick and couldn't take it anymore. But this social distancing thing has only been for the past 1-3 weeks. Those very sick have more than likely had it longer, so it is highly probable that they had it prior to the social distancing, yet the numbers can only be accounted for current stats, until they truly understand it. If anything, all of the people social distancing so how are they getting it?