There is reason to think this epidemic might result in just 100,000 deaths or so in the US at the very worst

And probably a lot fewer.

The US is too robust compared with places like China and Iran to descend into their chaos, but South Korea's can-do spirit in the face of this epidemic reminds me of nothing so much as Yankee ingenuity. If the bureaucracy in the US can be tamed, we may well have an experience similar to South Korea's.