[quantified]

It’s worth putting the discussion of “at what cost” in the open.

The cost-benefit analysis for forcing vaccinations and enforcing masking would also seem to follow. Teachers by and large don’t want their asymptomatic students to infect them, and thereby induce them to infect their elders, church members, etc, so moving on-line was completely rational to them for their own preservation.

We can usually see a car coming, and drive more or less safely. Covid’s a wild one in that you can’t see it coming, maybe you only get a little sick, maybe you get so sick you feel like you get hit by a car, and maybe you die. It’s confounding because it doesn’t fit the tidy buckets we prefer. And you can get it without leaving the house if other people come in. Different kind of risk than driving or crossing the street.

We also simply have higher expectations of health now. Spanish flu ripped through in an era where people on average expected a lot less health and longevity. Our valuation criteria have changed immensely in 100 years.