"...can't hurt you." - Big Mother
The CDC, FDA, state, county and city officials are lying to the public because they're more worried about preventing panic at all costs rather than being honest. For example, King Andrew Cuomo blatantly lied about the relative deadliness compared to influenza. He said it was twice when it is actual 30x+. Also, there's Trump calling it a "hoax".
In addition, there is under-reporting going on because of:
- The reticence to test (extremely narrow CDC criteria for PUI), doctors aren't able to test patients they suspect of having COVID-19 but don't meed the CDC's narrow criteria.
- People who get COVID-19 but have a mild-enough illness to not need the hospital.
- The lack of testing remains of people who died recently.
- Misdiagnosis that never attempts COVID-19 testing.
which lead to complacency and people not protecting themselves sensibly.
Furthermore, the incubation period leads to ever greater numbers of seemingly healthy people infecting others and greater spread due to manufactured consent, through lies, of people to not protect themselves from this real threat. The end result is yet another case of lazy, dishonest, and negligent leadership that refuses to take action and instead will let it spread.