Risk is a multi-faceted calculation. It weighs the risk of death with the risk of losing a livelihood, with the risk of damage to the mental health of one's children, with the loss of a decade in economic growth (The money we're printing now is a massive tax on 95% of the population, and the wealth drained will take a decade to recover, more if government continues to grow). Also, the risk of postponed treatment of other diseases.
If you evaluate all of this against a 98% of surviving COVID, you can start to see the problem with the current generation - fearful, sheltered, unrealistic.
It is easy to see why someone might exclaim, "It isn't real!" What is meant is "The reaction, what they are telling us, the fear point, is not real. It is not justified."