In the UK alone, over 100 health care workers have died, treating people suffering with covid.
The Government is bandying about the mid 50s but the media claims 159 so around 100 is about right. The NHS alone employs 1.4m. Compare that with agriculture employing 360,000 which suffers 33 deaths every year. Slightly less for fishing and mining.....so the risk for an NHS employee is no worse than working on a farm, and the risk only applies to perhaps a couple of months in a 40 year career. I dont hear farm labourers called heroes......
That is the real issue aviation is facing.... getting the general public to understand risk. The excess deaths from untreated cancer and other illnesses will clearly exceed Covid-19 deaths but the vast majority of the public are terrified of this plague, not helped by an incompetent government that did too little too late and so is faced with an extended lockdown and no quick resolution. Handled properly aviation would still have taken a hit but the state wouldnt be paying 1 in 4 of the population and could properly support aviation as other industries work normally