Good job improving the rationality of your friend! Now tell him he’s about as likely to die of the flu as he is of a car accident. Then he can have another fear. Either he’ll turn into a house-bound agoraphobe or he’ll realize nothing has changed since before he started worrying about these things.
Now tell him he’s about as likely to die of the flu as he is of a car accident.
That’s not remotely true, even looking at world-wide stats. Flu kills something like 300 to 650k per year. Traffic deaths max about 1200k per year. So even in a really bad flu season, traffic is twice as likely to kill you worldwide. If you’re not looking at everyone combined, and assuming your friend is between 5 and 65 the odd of dying from flu drop a lot, while the odds of a traffic deaths go way up.
The EU has 9.000 flu deaths and 19.000 traffic deaths in 2025/2026.
EDIT: I just realized if your friend is American, that’s actually true. The US had 45.000 flu deaths and 36.000 traffic deaths. sidenote: the US has a population about a third smaller than the EU…
Good job improving the rationality of your friend! Now tell him he’s about as likely to die of the flu as he is of a car accident. Then he can have another fear. Either he’ll turn into a house-bound agoraphobe or he’ll realize nothing has changed since before he started worrying about these things.
That’s not remotely true, even looking at world-wide stats. Flu kills something like 300 to 650k per year. Traffic deaths max about 1200k per year. So even in a really bad flu season, traffic is twice as likely to kill you worldwide. If you’re not looking at everyone combined, and assuming your friend is between 5 and 65 the odd of dying from flu drop a lot, while the odds of a traffic deaths go way up.
The EU has 9.000 flu deaths and 19.000 traffic deaths in 2025/2026.
EDIT: I just realized if your friend is American, that’s actually true. The US had 45.000 flu deaths and 36.000 traffic deaths. sidenote: the US has a population about a third smaller than the EU…