On: TB patient has violated health orders for a year – could jail be next?

[wkat4242]

450 per day is not a lot though. It's much lower than the normal number of deaths you'd expect in the US for its population and life expectancy (about 12000 per day I figure?) - after all people have to die of something eventually. Considering covid is absolutely everywhere now it's really not high numbers. It's just taking its share of the seasonal flu deaths and other common causes for the old now. After all it is the season for respiratory illnesses. I don't consider that a danger to society. A tuberculosis outbreak would really be because that has a mortality rate of over 10%, much higher than covid has ever been.

Not sure about the US but the hospital numbers here are really fine. A bit more ventilation is always good of course, and it'll be nice if that can be made in due course.

You're free to keep worrying and masking of course, but don't expect everyone to :) Personally I'm making up for lost time now, going clubbing more than ever. I really needed that. Social needs are also important.

[acdha → wkat4242]

You incorrectly stated that “COVID is no longer dangerous”. While a widespread TB outbreak would be worse, COVID is still killing people at significantly higher rates than the flu — something like 5-10x — and that rate is not dropping significantly. It makes sense to spend time on the thing which is actually killing people rather than currently hypothetical problems.

Similarly, it's important to remember that nuance is possible here: there's a wide range between doing nothing and the kind of lockdowns China had. Focusing on things which reduce lethality (vaccination) and spread (improved ventilation, mitigating the highest risk activities) saves lives and has little cost. That's especially important when you consider that the costs are unevenly distributed: for example, wearing a mask to the pharmacy or grocery store has no real cost but it helps high-risk individuals can safely use key services.