Ignore? No.

Place in perspective? Yes.


Rabies is a terrible disease. Only one person who had it has ever survived, and he was little more than a vegetable. It kills about a half dozen people in the US annually. We have an outstanding good three shot immunization against rabies that would stop every one of those half dozen deaths if we gave it to everyone,rather than just veterinarians, cave explorers, and others at highest risk.

Influenza is a far more common disease, albeit with a far lower lethality. The immunization against the flu isn't very good. This year it was less than 10% effective. Even so, the public health people put real effort into getting people to get their flu immunizations.

Why?

Because resources ARE finite, that's why. Because the public health and preventive medicine establishment realizes that. And there is far more return on investment trying to protect people against the flu - which kills tens of thousands of people in this country annually - then there is trying to protect people against something that - even if it is more lethal - occurs very rarely.

Now I realize that some people are entirely incapable of dealing rationally with actual risk versus perceived risk, heck look at all the white-knuckle passengers or those who refuse to fly altogether, and if that's you, you can't help it and I won't fault you for it, but reality doesn't change because of your phobias and I make no apologies for desiring that public policy be based upon reality, not your emotions.

That ain't "genius logic," it's merely common sense.