I think we are overlooking a simple conclusion: the Americans, in sum, find the cost of several hundred thousand deaths each year acceptable in order to safegua

I think we are overlooking a simple conclusion: the Americans, in sum, find the cost of several hundred thousand deaths each year acceptable in order to safeguard their freedoms and their way of life. Historically, they made peace with the death toll of yellow fever (~5% fatality rate!) and they made peace with the death toll of malaria. Disease prevention is a relatively novelty in the US, historically speaking, and mostly secondary to war readiness (undermined by the Spanish flu around WW1 and polio around WW2). If it wasn't for the threat of foreign wars destroying the American way of life, the American society at large is indifferent to a high death toll from disease. It's not clear whether this is a matter of high religiosity (because death is a goal and only the beginning of a soul's journey) or a history of dehumanizing a huge segment of their own population.