>Do we treat the impoverished old like their lives don't matter as much, let them die because they happen to be in the same arbitrary statistical grouping as ot

>Do we treat the impoverished old like their lives don't matter as much, let them die because they happen to be in the same arbitrary statistical grouping as other, unrelated old people you feel could have sacrificed more? Something used in public policy is Quality Adjusted Life Years. An 80 years has a much smaller expected lifespan than a 10 year old, so something that reduces the 80 year old's expected lifespan by e.g. 2 years could be compared to the effect that poverty or environmental damage has on the 70+ expected years of the 10 year old's life. >Some of those are children, some young, more middle-aged, and most old, although we are currently not sure how the statistics pan out for middle-aged and below when hospitals are severely overrun. We have this from the Wuhan numbers, where hospital beds were completely insufficient at least for the first month.