Rubbish, on all counts. Public health discussion constantly gives rates and percentages, not just numbers. And “they’ve been warning us so many times” - well, I hope you’ve also given up on applying security updates to any software or hardware you manage, since those have been getting issued forever, they must be crying wolf too.
My point isn't that agencies don't report incidence; my point is about when the discussion surfaces how it's discussed in the popular press, including editorializations in professional outlet. Were incidence rate flat or down between convenient points of comparison, but absolute numbers up, and an outbreak like Kansas happen, we'd be discussion absolute numbers. And even when incidence is up, the absolute numbers always headline. It's a subtle criticism I'm making, but I think an important one.
Nonetheless, while for 40 years TB has been discussed as a grace looming threat, note how absolute cases and incidence dropped steeply over most of that time. And while the drop has largely stopped, the US now has one of the lowest incidence rates in the world. But my takeaway is supposed to be that the US' TB measures are woefully broken because the drop has stopped?
The point is that if we'd put in a bit more effort 40 and 30 years ago, there would be 0 cases today (and if we put a bunch more effort in now, there will be 0 cases in 20 years). TB is awful, but it is curable and preventable. It's current existence in the world is a policy choice of the past few decades, and eradicating it is a choice we can make today.
