[gxon]

The reasoned panic over Covid-19 was never really about the individual severity of the disease or even the number of people it would kill.

It's about the rapid spike in deaths and hospitalizations happening all at the same time because of how extremely fast it spreads.

The flu spreads slow enough that our medical infrastructure can usually handle the seasonal surge of cases. Too many cases all at once overwhelms the system, leads to more deaths than necessary, and potentially has even more catastrophic effects on our economy and supply chains than we've had if too many people call in sick at the same time.

To put it physics terms, the scary thing about Covid-19 is the impact, not the absolute force. A million people dying isn't too concerning compared to other causes of death. But if they all die in a single month, that's a huge systemic problem.

I don't think it's reasonable on an individual level to panic about catching Covid-19 compared to other health risks. It's akin to thinking death by terrorism is something to be more concerned about than dying in a car crash.

[hfourm]

And you know, we have a vaccine for yearly flus