One of the things I’ve seen people point out with coronavirus, “It’s not that big a deal. More people die in car accidents every year.”

I wonder if they’ve thought about why automobile deaths are as low as they are. We invest huge amounts of time and money in automobile safety, driven by regulation and demand for safer cars. Seat belts, air bags, structural improvements and efforts to change people’s behavior have massively reduced automobile deaths. How much cheaper would your car be without all the safety features?

• In 1968, 200 million people drove 1.1 billion miles. Over 53,000 people died in auto accidents. For every 100 million miles driven, there were 5 deaths.
• In 2018, 327 million people drove 3.2 billion miles. Over 36,000 people died in auto accidents. For every 100 million miles driven, there was only 1 death.

After 50 years of safety improvements and cultural shifts (drinking and driving was once acceptable), we reduced auto deaths per miles driven by 80%.

One of the tragedies of this pandemic is that many people will die that could have been saved. The virus is spreading so fast that even a small percentage of people needing intensive care will overwhelm many hospitals. Although I agree that we shouldn’t live in fear, we should take this virus more seriously than most of the causes of death that we see every year. Maybe this is the wake-up call we need to change our priorities.

How much more resilient could we be if we redirected some of our military and other government spending towards health care and readiness for future pandemics?