A crystal ball would be nice too.
Wouldn't it?
Here's how I can find the risk of infection and the potential for side effects palatable:
-If I take my kids swimming in an inland lake, or river, there's a risk of drowning (dry drowning is even scarier). There's also a nonzero risk of flesh/brain eating microorganisms.
-If I allow my kids to ride their bike or scooter on the sidewalk, there's a risk that they'll fall and injure themselves or that someone without a backup camera hits them in the driveway.
-If I bring my kids to the park, they could be walloped in the head while running too close to the swings, or they could fall off the play structure and break a bone (or worse).
-If I give my kids medication to help with teething pain, headaches, or a foot, they could develop side effects that lead to hospitalization.
-If my kids go to school or to daycare, there's a petri dish of illnesses they can bring home - some benign while others severe.
-If my kids play on our back patio, there's a risk they could be stung by a bee. I have bee allergies and they may too.
-At every meal, there's always a chance a undeclared cashew could make its way to my 3 year old, requiring a trip to the emergency room.
-At every meal, there's always a chance that a new food causes a severe allergic reaction in our infant.
-If I keep my kids inside the house with no social interaction, there's a risk they'll develop separation anxiety that requires counseling.
-If I keep my kids inside the house with no social interaction, there's a risk one of them may eventually develop depression.
The list goes on.
Some of these are greater risks to our family than the virus (cashews, bees, chicken pox [I was never vaccinated for the pox and never got it], drowning, etc.).
Others are far out there and very unlikely to affect us.
If I live in fear of everything that could hurt, maim, disable, or kill my kids, we'd never leave the house and would probably live out in the boonies with no social interaction.
Granted, almost none of the aforementioned risks are transmissible to others, but I can't take every decision I need to make and create a list of all the impacts to those around me. I wear masks, my kids wear masks, we avoid crowds, we wash our hands and carry hand sanitizer. Above and beyond that, Covid is a risk that we now live with. We cannot take every action or decision and look at it through the Covid lens.