Thanks for bringing those numbers. Kind of crazy to me that tobacco still causes so many deaths - I had no idea.

I think the epidemic is worse in a few particular ways (though obviously not as bad in other ways as smoking, since I doubt COVID will keep causing 480k deaths a year). Ways in which it is worse:

1. It causes a spike of hospitalizations - this causes much less healthcare to be available in general. Smoking is already (regretably) factored in, I imagine, and doesn't cause sudden spikes.

2. COVID is generally not something you can protect yourself from - unlike smoking, which is to a much greater extent a personal choice.

3. Efforts to contain COVID are having a drastic effect on the economy in a way that smoking doesn't (both government-mandated and personal actions.)