But HIV isn't airborne so it's not an equal comparison. Also, COVID-19 has killed approximately 27,000 people in the US so far and it hasn't even taken 2 full months to reach that number. That's more than the flu killed in the 2015-2016 flu season and on pace to surpass all but the worst flue seasons over the past 10 years. The highest total was approximately 61,000 for the 2017-2018 flu season. If this virus continues to spread and kill at the rate we've seen so far then it could very well exceed 61,000 in less time than it took the flu to kill that many people 2 years ago.
And that is with shutting the economy down so nobody comes in contact. Imagine if we hadn't. The death tolls would be astounding.