Let’s say the government, in its usual ineffable wisdom, mandates that everybody has to buy a Powerball ticket, with the winner getting killed. And it also mandates that everybody go to work the next day, as usual. For the first option, even though the odds of getting the lethal Powerball number are astronomical, the entire nation would be consumed with worry, and stay up late until the drawing before releasing a huge sigh of relief, except for one. And the next day, they obey the mandate to show up for work without a thought, even though it is much more likely that the daily commute will kill you.
For the daily commute, we not only know the odds, but experience has caused us to ignore them. For the lottery ticket, there are no lessons from experience, unless of course the government continues its daily lottery mandate, in which case we would learn to ignore it as blithely as the dangers of our drive to work.
This is why we are fine with universally imposed vaccinations for measles, polio, and other dangerous diseases, and be a bit upset with a Covid shot, conflating a vaccination shot with being shot dead. It has nothing to do with being smart or dumb, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. It is just that we are uncomfortable or comfortable with the odds of new things, depending upon the outcome. So if you want to get comfortable with the odds of life, it pays to just get on with living.
