If 2020/2021 taught us anything, it's that millions of people are totally fine with denying, ignoring and spreading a deadly, infectious disease, and actively fight/protest measures to stop it.
People can believe all kinds of pigheaded and ignorant things about COVID because, in parts, they (1) either deny it exists or (2) minimize its effects. Tuberculosis denialism or minimalization aren't similarly common, to my knowledge.
[1]: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosi...
To listen to some of the people here, you would think that it's all-or-nothing: either you believe everything that comes out of the health care system or absolutely none of it. That's not accurate, and treating people that way doesn't help solve the problem.
I think this is too charitable. So many points of contention have both sides using morality as the justification for their position, and if they are on the side of "what is right" then there's no point even considering the words of the other side, because clearly the others are on the side of "wrong".
This is, of course, not an entirely new phenomenon. What is different is that we can communicate more, and faster, than in the past- one might hope that would help us more readily understand each other, but the opposite is proving to be true.
As far as I know, no one really knows why TB is not a major problem in the US. But saying that half of active TB patients is a bit like saying that car accidents kill half of the people who are critically injured by a car accident — it may be true (although I made up that last statistic), but it rather overstates the severity of the underlying problem (TB and car accidents).
Could it be the mandatory vaccination programme? I even had to get a booster as condition for my greencard because it had been 10 years.
The TB vaccine (BCG) is barely used in the US. It is not on the CDC schedule, it’s not routinely given in any school I’ve ever heard of, and it doesn’t seem to be recommended for US-born people at all.
I find it surprising that the US even bothers giving it to green card recipients, given that the US has no particular shortage of people with TB infections that can potentially infect people domestically.
And the BCG vaccine isn’t even particularly effective.
that is BONKERS I've gotta read up on this more.
'TB latent infections vs. active infections'Most COVID skeptics are somewhere in between "deniers at all costs" and "mildly suspicious that the government's recommendations are politically motivated". As in any normal curve, the vast majority are in the latter end of the spectrum and would be very happy to accept that TB is deadly.
I have never understood why, and I still don't understand people's behavior during the pandemic.
What could it be besides the money?
Simply because it was (Oct 2023) way leas than 55% effective and still falling.