WITH the current measures, 4,000 a year die. How stressed do we get about getting in the car? But we should alter our daily interactions for 500?

I just like using the car analogy because it is a risk we knowingly and willingly accept to enjoy life. And it works as a thought exercise. If you are 70 years old and not vaccinated, you chances of dying from Covid are 500%-1000% greater than the chances of dying in a car accident. That is significant.

and I would argue you may have unknowingly cherry picked the data. Your data includes teenagers, who presumably make up a large percentage of that number due to their own driving ( we all know how safe teenage drivers are). Perhaps there is a better report, but CDC link below suggests the number is much lower for children


In the United States, motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death among children. In 2018, 636 children 12 years old and younger died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, and more than 97,000 were injured. Of the children 12 years old and younger who died in a crash in 2018 (for which restraint use was known), 33% were not buckled up.

So the number who are in seatbelts (for this year)is almost exactly the same as covid deaths (making the assumption most of those without seatbelts would not have died if buckled up)


To add to the teens dying in car accidents I found this: Obviously 13-16 year are presumably mostly passengers. However, the stats of teenagers driving as the worst group of drivers is telling to counter your 4k stats


https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/teen_drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html

In 2019, almost 2,400 teens in the United States aged 13–19 were killed, and about 258,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor vehicle crashes.1 That means that every day, about seven teens aged 13–19 died due to motor vehicle crashes, and hundreds more were injured. In addition, motor vehicle crash deaths among teens 15–19 years of age resulted in about $4.8 billion in medical and work loss costs for crashes that occurred in 2018.1

Who is most at risk?
The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among teens aged 16–19 than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers in this age group are nearly three times as likely as drivers aged 20 or older to be in a fatal crash.

• Click here for link at https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/child_passenger_saf

The original point of the thread was masks/distancing. Those are basically the "seatbelts" of COVID. A minor annoyance that can be effective. Are 500 child deaths worth that annoyance (at least as it relates to schools and high-transmission areas?) I'd say yes.

EDIT: And it should be noted that those 300 deaths are with schools using mitigation measures, hybrid, etc. In other words, 300 is the number with seatbelts. What's the number when we go without? We may find out. Why we would choose to figure out that number is beyond me, though.