I think it's not the flu and it's not the Spanish flu either.
We have seen places where it was allowed to spread for a relatively long time which led to hospitals and crematoria running out of capacity in those hotbeds.
That being said, this crisis is being used by special interests for their own benefit. Like opening up big businesses but having small ones locked down. All the money printing, which is flowing to special interest groups and not to the average folks for the most part. And so forth...
If the US was filled with mostly people of European descent (people who follow rules) and you told people to wear masks when doing their shopping or coming in contact with strangers + avoiding large public gatherings then it probably could have been managed without locking everything down.
As someone said, a lot of things can be true at the same time.