[ExI] More deaths from COVID-19 than Afghanistan and Iraq wars combined

[Dave Sill]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2020 at 10:10 AM Will Steinberg via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> There are nearly 300,000 obesity-attributable deaths per year in the US.
> Cancer: ~600,000
> Tobacco related (actually, just for cigarettes here): 500,000
> Alcohol-related: ~100,000
>
> Are these not bigger health crises?
>

They're certainly killing more people.


> I fail to see why people are freaking out about the virus when they have
> been so silent about issues that--by the numbers--are far worse.
>

With the exception of cancer, in some case, those are all either conscious
decisions or the result of lifestyle choices. Sure, second-hand smoke
affects others--especially the children of smokers--but, for the most part,
the victims accept the risk of their behavior.

That's not the case with COVID. And since COVID was novel we really had no
idea how bad it would be. We fear the unknown.


> Come to think of it, it seems like lack of education is probably killing a
> lot of people as well...
>

Stupidity kills people, too.

-Dave
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