Take any disease that kills 99% of those that get it. You are going to be a lot more scared of it, than one that kills 0.1% of infected targets. It does not matter if the overall death number is the same.

People will act far less logically in the first case than the second.

This is not about "math" it is about emotional responses and how that affects everything. As I said, you are more likely to be trampled to death than die in the fire that caused the panic.