That's probably true, so maybe the 2% death rate is too high, again, let's assume that the OP's point of 0.5% is accurate.
As I said, that still implies that if everyone in the United States got it, 1.5 million of them would die (320,000,000 * .005). That's a lot of people.
If a government did nothing to prevent a terrorist attack that killed 1.5 million people, most people would (rightly) be pretty upset.
EDIT:
Also, forgot to mention, it's totally disingenuous to only look at "deaths". We do not fully know the long term health effects, but as I stated there's potential neurological effects, potential risks of type 1 diabetes, and people permanently losing smell.