Intubation is risky because the act of intubation itself can introduce deadly pathogens, like MRSA, into the lungs.

Catheterization kills people too, for similar reasons.

People get intubated because they will die without it, meaning the risk of dying from intubation outweighs the guarantee of dying without it.

Intubation is more likely than not going to give you a nasty infection. More than 60% if patients intubated during the pandemic caught some form of secondary infection from the process.