Heh. To be honest, most spiders in Australia are harmless. Some are scary-looking, but harmless. If you stay in any major cities (around the coast), you won't find any spiders -- or snakes, for that matter. Besides, most hospitals are fully stocked with anti-venom. There hasn't been a single spider-related fatality for nearly 70 years now.
In Australia, you're more likely to be attacked by a horse, a cow, or a dog, than by a snake or spider.
Koalas don't attack people, and there are no such things as drop bears.
Kangaroos
do attack cars, but only rarely and only by accident (e.g. boinging across an isolated country road etc.)
Why confine yourself to the US?
I took just two trips within Australia -- one to Sydney and one to Tasmania -- before embarking on my first tour abroad, about 5 years ago. (I say "my first", but I mean "my first by myself"). I went to visit England for two weeks and had a *fabulous* time.
But, yeah -- moms worry. After I got through customs, the first thing I did was get a new SIM card, change it in my phone, then send my mom a text message to say "I'm OK!"
As for COVID and people wearing their freakin masks ... you're not wrong. Down in my part of Australia, we've been under lockdown since March, and just opened up again a week ago. There are masks everywhere you look, and people keep their distance -- but the good news? Even during the worst times, my city didn't have more than about 600-700 cases per day.
At worst.
Why? Because, most of the time, people listened to the health experts and followed the rules. COVID is not a joke.
It's not even a single virus or a single illness -- it's happened before, but the virus mutated into a new and more deadly form, which is what we're seeing now.
Throughout the epidemic so far, we've seen about 800-900 deaths -- mostly old people, but also people of all ages from teens to 60-somethings.
Of course, that pales in comparison to what's happening in the USA ... I've heard America's had hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Here's hoping people will listen to the experts and stop making up their own "rules".
Why are people doubting or mocking the scientists and healthcare experts? It makes no sense to me. If my toilet had a blockage, and the plumber told me why, would I say "No, 'cos google told me otherwise?" If there was a fire, and the firemen were fighting it, would I tell them to stop 'cos Twitter or Facebook said so?
Scientists and health workers work incredibly hard, and deserve our respect. Sure, they sometimes get things wrong. But they're not wrong in this.
I've worked in hospitals for over a decade, and I've seen how hard doctors and nurses and everyone else works. Kudos to our healthcare workers!
Sorry, I know I'm preaching to the choir. *blush* I just think it needs to be said.
and people need to wear their freakin masks 
But I definitely don't recommend doing this! Nor do I recommend the pretend-accidentally-on-purpose-sneeze on them. "Whoops! It was an accident, I swear!" 
