4 ms·

> the article does nothing to support the thesis that young people in particular are killing other people. It is very simple: from the pool of "all people" in

by acqq 7y ago

> the article does nothing to support the thesis that young people in particular are killing other people. It is very simple: from the pool of "all people" in any big enough area (e.g. a small city) those who will catch the virus, be able to spread it to others and will not develop significant symptoms, most of them will be very young. The older one is, more chance is that he will have strong symptoms (like not being able to breathe). So any young person which doesn't "feel" being ill who continues to live "normally" -- meaning contacting other people like always, as in "going out" at the evening or whatever -- is a strong transmitter of the same virus that is actively killing older people. Which all doesn't mean that older people who also behave like "nothing is happening" aren't also spreading the virus... and also, effectively, killing people. The biggest point is: please don't behave like "it's nothing."

paulmd 7y ago
Disproportionately, it is the olds who are behaving like nothing is happening. They are the ones consuming the cable news that is framing it as "wash your hands and everything will be fine!". Youngs generally accept that these large-scale phenomenon are real. We are just also powerless to change them, because politics are dominated by centrist olds who just don't want their 401k to go down too much. Yes, you should wash your hands, but that's not going to have much of an impact on an aerosolized respiratory virus. Individual action has a very limited impact on these giant, planet-wide phenomena. A very large number of people are going to get coronavirus unless there are state or country-scale interventions like mass quarantines. It's not our fault that the bigger actions aren't being taken. Youngs wield extremely little political power (in significant part thanks to ourselves and our own unwillingness to vote). See also: climate change, gun violence, pollution, etc etc. These are large problems that youngs accept and olds stonewall collective action on, instead pushing bullshit "individual responsibility" narratives with no realistic chance of solving the problem.
- acqq 7y ago
  > the ones consuming the cable news that is framing it as "wash your hands and everything will be fine!". It was sad to watch that: both sides of political spectrum have had their own motives to downplay the issue and therefore postpone the necessary political actions -- and for these, obviously, the youngest can not be responsible. Both sides behave so, of course, "because economy" but there are other motives around as well. In reality being complacent seem to already result in bigger problems than the isolation measures alone would. Italy is an obvious example. I agree, there are indeed some similarities with the climate change problems.

by acqq 7y ago

paulmd 7y ago

Disproportionately, it is the olds who are behaving like nothing is happening. They are the ones consuming the cable news that is framing it as "wash your hands and everything will be fine!". Youngs generally accept that these large-scale phenomenon are real. We are just also powerless to change them, because politics are dominated by centrist olds who just don't want their 401k to go down too much. Yes, you should wash your hands, but that's not going to have much of an impact on an aerosolized respiratory virus. Individual action has a very limited impact on these giant, planet-wide phenomena. A very large number of people are going to get coronavirus unless there are state or country-scale interventions like mass quarantines. It's not our fault that the bigger actions aren't being taken. Youngs wield extremely little political power (in significant part thanks to ourselves and our own unwillingness to vote). See also: climate change, gun violence, pollution, etc etc. These are large problems that youngs accept and olds stonewall collective action on, instead pushing bullshit "individual responsibility" narratives with no realistic chance of solving the problem.

acqq 7y ago
> the ones consuming the cable news that is framing it as "wash your hands and everything will be fine!". It was sad to watch that: both sides of political spectrum have had their own motives to downplay the issue and therefore postpone the necessary political actions -- and for these, obviously, the youngest can not be responsible. Both sides behave so, of course, "because economy" but there are other motives around as well. In reality being complacent seem to already result in bigger problems than the isolation measures alone would. Italy is an obvious example. I agree, there are indeed some similarities with the climate change problems.