Every day: There is a 1 in 1 trillion chance that a gamma ray burst from a celestial event will kill every living thing on earth.

There is a 1 in a billion chance that an asteroid will kill 9/10 of humanity.

There is a 1 in 10,000 chance you'll die in car accident this year. - 100% chance that *multiple people* will die in a car accident today.

There have been 21,000 flu deaths this year.

There have been 2,800 cases of coronavirus.

Perspective.

@0x56

Put another way: more than three times as many people have died of the flu JUST IN THE US, JUST SO FAR THIS YEAR, as have been simply diagnosed with Wuhan coronavirus.

@0x56

I've never been able to figure out how the people who panic about stuff like this manage to navigate REAL threats to life and limb, like staircases and showers.

Especially those of us that aren't right handed. All that shit is built against us...i swear.

@mcfate @0x56

@Heucuva8 @mcfate @0x56 I think people don’t understand numbers that big on an innate level, which is why we strive to humanize with anecdotes. That also can have a backlash. Remember stranger danger in the 80’s? Or now Fox News trumpeting that immigrants are going to murder you. (But only the brown immigrants) 😖

@catie @Heucuva8 @0x56

It's a simple fact that violent crime was vastly worse 25 years ago, there's literally no comparison.

People managed to go about their business without losing their minds, somehow.

@mcfate @Heucuva8 @0x56 well, yes. What’s the alternative? But even on the 80’s, if you look at it from a statistical perspective the numbers still weren’t all that big, my point was that people tend to conflate percentages and assume chance is a certainty that some thing will happen. Sometimes that’s a good thing, I.e. get your flu shot. Sometimes not.

@catie @mcfate @Heucuva8 @0x56

I think it's a little simpler than not understanding numbers. People tend to seriously discount threats they are comfortable and familar with, and exaggerate threats that are unknown to them.

Flu is a familiar threat, coronavirus is not.

@misterfive @mcfate @Heucuva8 @0x56 True, the fact that it’s coming from a foreign source isn’t helping either due to people’s fear of the “other”.

@catie @mcfate @Heucuva8 @0x56

People have to be this way to survive. If we really, truly, understood everyday risk, we'd never leave the house ever.

@misterfive @catie @Heucuva8 @0x56

I try to understand that life is uncertain, and every time I exhale, it could be the last.

But the odds don't strongly suggest that's an immediate likelihood. I'd be at as much risk of just dropping dead hiding in my closet or under my bed.

@mcfate @misterfive @Heucuva8 @0x56 I think we’re coming to the logical conclusion in this convo of existential dread and the inevitability of death and inventing an afterlife.🙂 what’s our unique afterlife going to be? 😂

@catie @mcfate @misterfive @Heucuva8 - Mine... kinda like Valhalla - lots or eating, drinking, and perhaps more than a few sparring matches.

@0x56 @catie @mcfate @Heucuva8

Well, as I told my son once, the death rate is one per person. (Assuming no vampires, sombies, etc.)

<slowly shuffles out of frame>

@misterfive @0x56 @catie @mcfate