I would say it's probably more than five times deadlier than the flu. In 2018 about 60k people died because of "influenza and pneumonia" [1], so 300k deaths due to Covid is five times worse, but that's with some quite strict lockdowns. Without lockdowns it's anybody's guess, but twice as many deaths doesn't appear outrageous.
That said, what "flu multiple" would have scared people into action? Even now, in December there are surprisingly many people in denial, up until the last moments of their lives. There are people who think this whole Covid is only a conspiracy (did you hear the one about "Gates' vaccine" which is actually just a way to inject people with nanorobots?). If Covid was only twice as deadly as the flu, would the Congress have passed the CARES act in 2 weeks? Maybe they would've if it was exactly 2.85 times as deadly as the flu, but we'll never know.
What we know is that we all die one day or another. In a regular year 2.8 to 2.9 million people die in the US. 300k is 10% of that. That's bad, and every single death is a tragedy, but this was no Bubonic Plague.
That said, what "flu multiple" would have scared people into action? Even now, in December there are surprisingly many people in denial, up until the last moments of their lives. There are people who think this whole Covid is only a conspiracy (did you hear the one about "Gates' vaccine" which is actually just a way to inject people with nanorobots?). If Covid was only twice as deadly as the flu, would the Congress have passed the CARES act in 2 weeks? Maybe they would've if it was exactly 2.85 times as deadly as the flu, but we'll never know.
What we know is that we all die one day or another. In a regular year 2.8 to 2.9 million people die in the US. 300k is 10% of that. That's bad, and every single death is a tragedy, but this was no Bubonic Plague.
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm