Prime, look at the death numbers as opposed to the numbers of infected. Most people who get Covid are asymptomatic. Most never even know until they test positive. Those who are elderly and/or have other underlying conditions like respiratory diseases are at great risk and should quarantine. Do you really think wearing masks outside does anything to stop Covid?
It only makes sense that wearing a mask indoors or out reduces transmission whether from spittle or just airborne particles. If you can maintain enough distance from someone outdoors wearing a mask doesn't seem as crucial to me. Social distancing becomes more of a problem indoors. My being claustrophobic makes wearing a mask very uncomfortable. But, I do it anyway.
Comparatively speaking the percentage who die from Covid is low. However, the disease is much more widespread (literally almost 70 million cases worldwide) than other more deadly viruses. That's why the total number of deaths is so high even though the percentage is low.
In another post TB was sighted as a more deadly disease. With TB there are different considerations then there are with Covid. TB is most prevalent in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and South Africa while Covid is bad everywhere in the world. The rate of death worldwide from TB is comparable to Covid with 1.4 million people dying from it in 2019. 1.5 million have died from Covid and we still have a couple of months to go to reach whatever the annual death toll ends up being.
Looking at these two diseases closer to home tells a very different story. In the U.S. 515 people died from TB in 2019, while so far this year 267 K have died from Covid. The bottom line is we in the U.S. and other 1st world countries are much less likely to die from TB than from Covid.
Comparing the death rate from Covid to health issues other than those that are contagious, is like looking at apples and oranges. So if more people die from cancer or heart failure than do from Covid it simply isn't relevant.
With a bevy of vaccines coming available over the next several months, hopefully we can beat this pandemic and get back to normal. I've been slow to buy into the idea of getting vaccinated for the flu. When I got a flu vaccine last September, it was my first one in my life. I figured since I never had the flu or if I did, I never had symptoms severe enough to know it, why get vaccinated. Honestly, I am somewhat unsure about getting vaccinated against Covid. We'll see. If it is mandated, I'll do it for sure.
