> I was trying to find the chances of dying given you have a car crash, not the chances of being in a car crash and dying.
That seems a weird statistic to seek out, because your conclusion would then be "...and we don't try to avoid getting in car crashes to avoid that 0.5% risk of death". Which is wrong, we do and we should try to avoid crashes.
No, not really. "We" (as in normal people, not e.g. automakers) don't "try to avoid getting in car crashes" to nearly such a degree as with COVID. We live our everyday lives and drive anyway, and doing pretty much whatever we want, except maybe a little slower (due to speed limits), staying within lanes, and while avoiding imminent dangers that pop up on the road. With COVID we're told to stay home and just scrap everything altogether. The response is entirely different, and is not warranted by just comparing those statistics. You need to include the other pieces as well.
That seems a weird statistic to seek out, because your conclusion would then be "...and we don't try to avoid getting in car crashes to avoid that 0.5% risk of death". Which is wrong, we do and we should try to avoid crashes.