I know we're all susceptible to this sort of effect, myself included. But I can't help but wonder what we would be like, just as a society, if every death from HIV and TB and influenza and standard vaccine complications, got the headlines it has with COVID-19 over the last 18 months.<p>Thousands a year in America alone. Every single day. Someone dies of one of those. We would live in a perpetual barrage of death and disfigurement by communicable disease and vaccine. How rational would the typical person be about their risks of dying from TB or the DTAP vaccine if subjected to that?<p>The doctor raises a great point about stewing in stress and madness of our own devising. Most signs indicate our kids will mostly be fine and that the possible mitigations for the small threat (e.g. no more schools) will probably outweigh the harms of COVID-19 in that population. Which leads us back to, well, there's actually nothing to be done about it, really. No one to blame, nothing beyond the basic precautions, and no guarantees. People don't like that sense of powerlessness, I suppose. Just an agitated nervous need to do <i>something</i>, even if it doesn't make sense.