Percy writes:
you apparently think a sample size of one observer of how many known infected people there are is somehow meaningful
It may seem that asking one person this question is not significant, but what if I had asked a hundred people or a thousand - and what if I had asked them all individually. The sample size would then be more meaningful and could be used for extrapolation.
As it happens, even though I had asked you personally, several others offered their own experiences voluntarily - already adding to the sample size.
Why prejudge the intention of the question in this way and bite my head off like that. The only reason I can imagine is that you are confident that I could not have asked this question to a hundred people and certainly not a thousand because they too would have bitten my head off. Such is the nature of society today.