61,000 people (US only) died in 2018 from the flu (and we HAD a vaccine), as compared to 180,000 people, so far, dying from COVID-19 in 2020, an increase yes, but not a very big increase considering there's 330,000,000 people in the US. How concerned were we when handing out candy, or attending Xmas parties in 2018? If you were like me, I'm guessing not at all. Based on that, it seems that we're all OK with 60,000 infectious disease deaths to the point where we don't protect ourselves
at all, yet add just another 60,000 - 120,000 to that total and we go into total PPE and quarantine/lockdown. Where do we draw the line when it comes to concern? I currently wear my mask 95% of the time I'm interacting with people that are less than 6 feet from me, because I don't want to get it, or spread it to others. Why DIDN'T I do this during the flu season of 2018, especially considering that 9x the amount of people had the flu, as compared to COVID-19? I don't have an answer for that.
Source:
https://www.goodrx.com/blog/flu-vs-c...rates-by-year/