This chart is very inaccurate. The number of Covid-19 deaths is way higher than 59 at the moment. Just in Italy 250 are died yesterday. Tuberculosis is also a terrbile disease. Just that are chances of getting it are much lower than Corona virus.
I don’t think it is accurate either but that is because the deaths per day for corona have not leveled off to an average. Corona is in the collecting data phase. It will be at least ten years before it will be possible to add it to a chart like this with other diseases that have long established protocols. So 250 or 59 are not really an accurate picture of what a stabilized number will look like.
tuberculosis is a great example of this because it has been treated for a long time. Tb hospitals were even built that isolated these patients from the general population at one time. this would have helped prevent the spread to the other patients in a regular hospital and community. It wouldn’t help the patients get better though so antibiotics is really why we don’t have as much to worry about if you get tb today.
But your chances of getting tb are lower because people diagnosed with tb are quarantined for as much as six months so it doesn’t spread and cause more than one person to have to take antibiotics for six months. Our chances of getting it are lower because it has been relatively contained with these methods. Most people don’t even realize that there are a handful of people per year that are spending their time on a six month isolation for this.
so it will probably be a while before we will have accurate data that compares to something with an established history like tb. Italy’s present numbers are not accurate for the long term either.
On a lighter note, I did have an elderly lady as a patient over ten years ago who had told me that she was a nurse in a tuberculosis hospital before antibiotics. She was a beautiful lady and I asked her about how they isolated and whether they wore masks and she said no. So I asked her if the staff would often get sick taking care of patients this way, and she said no to this and I just thought it was amazing that these people were able to work with these patients without getting tb too.
I don’t know if there could be a little bit of mind over matter mentality that could be behind this, but I think fear is definitely an enemy in situations like this.