I heard that story too. The media like to play it up that all young people will get that way. But the truth is that nearly all young people who get affected by Covid 19 won’t be affected in this way. The disease passes through them almost as if nothing has happened. The three Covid-19 people I know were quite functional after a week of being diagnosed. Yes, they had some mild flu symptoms, but they were far from a lung transplant.
When the news started coming out of China in December, I recall the Chinese experts saying a few things about this disease (like it will affect older people more than younger people) that so far have come true. And our western governments did next to nothing to prepare — until it was too late.
And there are more questions that need more data to answer properly, like how many people will have secondary effects like the young lady in the NYT articles. But I can’t justify shutting down most of an economy for one or a few hundred deaths of young people. Motor vehicle accidents probably cause more deaths and injuries of young people than Covid-19, yet no one talking about banning cars and highways.
Please don’t get me wrong here. My mother is in a senior’s center and we have not access to her. I am 61 years old, which puts me part of that demographic that is susceptible to the ravages of Covid 19. Last year, I had the flu and it took almost three months for me to shake. I’m not sure I could survive Covid 19.
Whether I’m in agreement with current government directives or not, I obey them as best I can. I practice social distancing. I go to stores only when necessary. I avoid gatherings of Iof people. When I go out, I wear a mask in case I have disease and could pass it on to someone else. I am frustrated that other Canadians cannot take this simple step. But I understand why many young people (and others) are avoiding the directives. I think this speaks to our overall distrust of government, which is another issue that I could spend a lot of time on.
Even though I am in compliance with government directives, I can’t support shutting down most of an economy when death rate seems to be less than 0.1% of the population.
There will be more indirect deaths of this economic disruption than actual Covid-19 deaths.
And as part of the stuff we don’t know about Covid-19, we really don’t know how long it is going to last. It might disappear like the Spanish flu. Or it might hang around for decades, just like our regular flus. For sure, we can’t shut down the economy for decades.
