Although I would guess that the previous poster is not concerned about the voluntarily unvaccinated (who choose to play COVID-19 lottery with their own lives), rather than the much smaller number of those who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons or who do not get a good immune response after vaccination (who may have to play COVID-19 lottery involuntarily if they are unable to continue to quarantine themselves).
Obviously, there are second order effects of voluntarily choosing not to vaccinate, such as increasing the load on the health care system and health care workers.
Two of my 20 somethings work in healthcare. One of them lives near us and, especially pre vaccine, we were all extra careful because she was terrified of passing it on at the hospital. The other daughter worked in close quarters with children and an older mom who was pregnant and had her baby in March 2021. Dd was so fearful of infecting mom and or kids that she voluntarily waited in a drive through testing line 3 days a week to be extra careful. She recently got omicron on a break from work. She was so unconcerned about her own risk her solution was to take 2 other positive friends to a a friends parentsā beach house to quarantine. They had a grand time waiting in isolation for all 3 to get a couple of negative tests so they could go back to work.
I think most young folksā concern is/was reasonable and similarā¦fear for the vulnerable but not for themselves.
Kids have had a terrible time, my own included. So has everyone. Adjusting quickly to a new reality in 2020 was difficult, but it was totally necessary at the time. We are still adjusting, and people are still dying.
Yes, it has sucked for kids. Itās terrible that they have had to do online schooling. My own son absolutely hated online classes and his grades suffered. We have technologies that can help us to manage. It isnāt ideal. Thank god kids now didnāt have to live through the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, or world wars. Itās probably fair to say that most children in those times experienced a lot of suffering.
Sadly, 900,000+ Americans of all ages, races and income level are dead. I suspect everyone now knows someone who had died or was severely ill, and is maybe still sick. I feel for all children right now, but all those who have died are the greater tragedy.
The current situation sucks but we all have had to do the best under the circumstances. We know more now than we did in 2020 and we donāt have reason, currently, to be as fearful as we were a couple of years ago. Things will hopefully become more normal.
Kids are resilient. I am personally less worried about them than other groups of people.
We adjust what we do before visiting FIL (93, heart issues, one lung) because we donāt want to bring it to him. Heās opted to live his life without fear, because there isnāt necessarily much left. We fully support his choices, but donāt change what we do, because again, we donāt want to bring it to him. He is fully vaxxed plus got the booster, so is doing what he can without stopping life.
Weāre hoping in June to take him on a train trip out west. Heās never been out west. Itāll be our birthday present to him. He has no desire to fly and canāt ride in a car comfortably for long, so train it will be if heās still up to going in a couple of months.
I think this is the key distinction, and also a key dividing line in how one views covid restrictions here on CC. Some have no problem if the lives of others are sacrificed, provided that their kid gets a normal college experience. Some donāt see it that way.
Seriously?! Itās a sad state of affairs if one believes that once an opinion is formed it will never change.
Iām grateful historical trailblazers (like Rosa Parks, whose birthday is today) often embraced changing opinions through their action.
I actually agree with this sentiment. However when it comes to trust, some understand the hit or miss nature of a global pandemic when it comes to mitigation. Others choose to use unfortunate outcomes to undermine trust. Healthy skepticism is a difficult balancing act.
I completely agree that people donāt have to respect lies. Saying something loudly and with conviction does not make it true. How many times were we told Covid was going to disappear? I believe staying silent in the face of blatant lies is costly on many levels (physical, mental and emotional).
If they are really that concerned that they may give covid to others, they should be PCR testing every 72 hours. Much more effective, as that would catch asymptomatic cases
One of the things that I see on CC that is very different where I live is that most people still have to go to work in-person. 100 million+ people in the US have no choice but to go to work everyday, and I am sometimes amazed at how detached that we can get from that reality.
My wife went back to work in-person, because it was best for her students along with understanding that she could mitigate the risks. But, I am not surprised that we have some that swear that students of all ages can get the same educations from a Zoom session and that kids should be the ones making the biggest sacrifices during this Covid era. We are already destroying the environment and taking from their future retirements, so we might as well ask them for more.
From the beginning of COVID-19, opinions on what (if any) non-medical mitigations (e.g. social distancing, masking, etc.) are desirable were based on level of concern for others (external effects). Contagious diseases are high in external effects, and COVID-19 takes that to another level when asymptomatic and presymptomatic spreading is common. Some mitigations like mask wearing also have greater external effects (protecting others) than protection of oneself.
Because of the way that caring about others or external effects aligns with partisan politics in a politically divided US*, it is no surprise that opinions on COVID-19 and mitigation efforts quickly became divided on partisan lines.
*See Haidtās The Righteous Mind (or pages 7 and 13 of the figures)
You forgot to mention that scientific opinion evolved on what was necessary. The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated for over a year that in person school was necessary. Not really a partisan organization, nor one indifferent, as you seem to imply about many of us, to the welfare of others.
However, typical lead time between PCR testing and getting results makes them ineffective for precautionary testing, unless the person quarantines for a few days before the test and between the test and event that they are testing for. Example:
Day
What happens
-4
Infected, not yet detectable
-3
PCR test
-2
Infection becomes detectable
-1
Infection becomes contagious
-1 or 0
PCR test result is negative
0
Event being tested for, contagious
1
Symptoms appear
For precautionary testing, a rapid test immediately before any time one may be in a position to spread virus to others would be more effective, even if not 100% effective. I.e. basically checking if you are likely to be contagious just before the event.
You seem to be suggesting that young people who PCR test every week (and follow other rules such as masking, social distancing, etc.) are hypocrites - they donāt really care about protecting others - because they arenāt PCR testing every 72 hours?
Image taken from todayās NYT morning update (e-mail). Itās definitely sobering to see where the US stands among the included countries even acknowledging that none of the accounts are necessarily 100% accurate (ours included). I suspect all are undercounted, esp from the earlier days. The US numbers as they stand (2982/1,000,000) means roughly one in every 335 Americans has passed away from Covid. Then there are those who survived, but are still dealing with after effects. I wonder what those numbers are. And how many (like H and I) havenāt had it yet.
When I saw the chart, within 1 second this was my exact thought process:
New Zealand - lockdown - check
Japan - highly masked - check
South Korea - highly masked - check
Australia - lockdown - check
Then:
Nigeria, China - undercounting
Then we have the low vaccination rates in the US
But the effectiveness of lockdowns and social responsibility is what jumped out at me initially
Many countries, including India and the entire continent of Africa, are undercounting.
It is great news that the widely available KN95s are so effective. N95s are becoming more common here too.
