There are not many places where you have even preliminary data on people who went through an infection. Whether what the Swedes did was wise is not really the issue here, I'm concerned about the 0.6% figure. If it were true, and I strongly doubt it, that would make Covid-19 a much more deadly disease.

Exactly.

Problem is, most people can't see further than their own nose and have things in perspective. It's quite perverse how we humans obsess over things that are only a drop of water compared to the bigger issues in this world just because it suddenly came to or near our homes. Governments and media have been pushing this up to the No Mans Sky making people scared, while even doctors and researchers say this borders on mass-hysteria. Truth is, tens of millions die each year of hunger, war and diseases. Are we supposed to suddenly forget about them?

According to [url=https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/influenza-(seasonal)]WHO[/url], flu/influenza alone kills up to 650.000 EACH YEAR. Are we supposed to forget about them because worlds media can't stop talking about one thing?

However, even with my dark humour, I find only 20% giveback while we are still in (semi-) lockdown a tad tasteless!

Plague Inc wasn't tied to an IRL plague event like this game is, or essentially cashing on on any said IRL events.

Essentially it is the specificity of this game's subject matter that is a good part of the problem.

Now if people want to play it, fine, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth....from the obvious cashing in attempt(both releasing with that title and in this time period) to the "pulling at heart strings" donation setup, to other aspects.

People have lost loved ones to this illness...to them this sort of game would likely be a slap in the face, for starters.

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This....it was what I was trying to say and more to the user above.

In most places, especially the most severely affected ones, people who have no or few symptoms completely fall off the radar. The really devastating thing about Covid is the way it affects people in very different ways. It is difficult to be sure but about estimates go from 25% to 80% of infected people who have no or negligibly symptoms. That's the bad news, because those people are still spreaders and that makes it terribly easy for the disease to remain hidden for a while. Until we have large-scale reliable antibody studies making assumptions here is very unwise.

But don't post anything they consider "political" or not in line with their opinions...

Then most likely everything would be a slap in their faces...

I've lost a family member to a decease myself, but if something would upset me I just turned my head around and tuned it off. Internet, phones and TV can be shut off to allow for some time off to grieve.

According to some sources, 8,000 children die of hunger every fracking day. But, cynically speaking, they are not our children, but we might catch COVID-19, and with some percent chance, die from it.

UNESCO said they would need about 16 billion dollars to stop children from dying of hunger... does that sound much? Ever looked at military budgets?

Maybe, maybe not.

Some people handle it differently...I think both ways can be valid.

I'm not that offended by the content. I never really get the "too soon" complaint. Either something can be made into a game/joke/TV show/whatever or it shouldn't.

What I *am* worried about is that given the timeline, this is likely to be a cheaply-made rushed-out-the-door piece of shovelware, or a copy of a much better game with a different coat of paint and a relevant title.

[EDIT] Although the minuscule and short-lived charity donation does make this seem like a pretty shitty attempt to excuse themselves.

This...the "donation" thing(likely appeal to emotion attempt), the naming(to draw attention instead of using a more generic/etc name), and some other factors bother me more than the game itself.

The game could be fine, it's HOW it was marketed and packaged that bothers me more.

16 billion is nothing. Heck just Italy itself is getting over 170 billion euros for the Covid 19 economical reneval plan from the EU. Heck you can get Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Zuckerberg and Buffet together and 16 billion would be peanuts for them together.

Agreed, had Plague inc been called SARS Inc, it would have been more controversial.

Even "Pandemic" would have been a less emotive title.

I took issue with your claim that even in the worst affected parts of the world, only 0.6% of people were infected. If you are willing to withdraw the number (considering that smaller scale sampling of people in badly affected places suggests very different values), I have no interest in debating this further.

Yes, right, we should we even care...?

With all the overload of fear-mongering and different stress-inducing sand storms (work, family, social media et al) I'm actually not surprised. Like chronic stress isn't damaging our brain enough already.

That's why most are privatized so they don't fall under the public-scrutiny act, and then they just magically vanish.