4 ms·

113-year-old coronavirus survivor: The elderly are the forgotten ones of society

9 points by lkrubner 6y ago

ncmncm 6y ago
In the US, it is considered normal for ~100,000 people to die each week. So, the 100,000 coronavirus deaths we have had so far, spread over 10 weeks, have increased numbers less than 10%. Less, because an unknown but probably non-negligible fraction of those would have died from other cause in those ten weeks, because of the age-linked risk. (Traffic deaths from extreme reckless driving are way up despite, or maybe because of, half the traffic evaporating.) I wonder if this experience will make us more conscious of the much larger number of unnecessarily early deaths we have all the time, and maybe motivate doing something about them.
- robocat 6y ago
  The “they were going to die soon anyway” meme is a massively incorrect misconception. Expected years of life lost for Covid victims is over a decade[1]. Plenty of those that die had comorbidities, but they are often chronic conditions, not “die this month“ conditions. The thing to remember is that the expected lifespan for an older person is a decade more or less, because they have already reached an old age e.g. 50% of 70 year olds are expected to live to 85[2]. [1] https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-75 https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-75 [2] https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html
mydongle 6y ago
I don't know, something inside me cringes when someone who is able to live all the way to 113 is waving their finger calling for a revolution to treat the elderly better, when the average young person growing up today will be lucky to even live to 70 without some kind of debt forcing them to slave away until the day they kill themselves from depression and loneliness in a rotting society or die from a curable/preventable illness without affordable healthcare. And it's not like I have no sympathy for the elderly as a young person. I just can't hear these complaints over the cries of all the young people with no hope, no future, who have no power to change a damn thing. If anything, the fact that these people are able to live past 100 says something positive about our world today, rather than that they've been forgotten or neglected in some way. Anyone want to tell me I'm wrong? Am I the asshole here?

9 points by lkrubner 6y ago

In the US, it is considered normal for ~100,000 people to die each week. So, the 100,000 coronavirus deaths we have had so far, spread over 10 weeks, have increased numbers less than 10%. Less, because an unknown but probably non-negligible fraction of those would have died from other cause in those ten weeks, because of the age-linked risk. (Traffic deaths from extreme reckless driving are way up despite, or maybe because of, half the traffic evaporating.) I wonder if this experience will make us more conscious of the much larger number of unnecessarily early deaths we have all the time, and maybe motivate doing something about them.

robocat 6y ago
The “they were going to die soon anyway” meme is a massively incorrect misconception. Expected years of life lost for Covid victims is over a decade[1]. Plenty of those that die had comorbidities, but they are often chronic conditions, not “die this month“ conditions. The thing to remember is that the expected lifespan for an older person is a decade more or less, because they have already reached an old age e.g. 50% of 70 year olds are expected to live to 85[2]. [1] https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-75 https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-75 [2] https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

mydongle 6y ago

I don't know, something inside me cringes when someone who is able to live all the way to 113 is waving their finger calling for a revolution to treat the elderly better, when the average young person growing up today will be lucky to even live to 70 without some kind of debt forcing them to slave away until the day they kill themselves from depression and loneliness in a rotting society or die from a curable/preventable illness without affordable healthcare. And it's not like I have no sympathy for the elderly as a young person. I just can't hear these complaints over the cries of all the young people with no hope, no future, who have no power to change a damn thing. If anything, the fact that these people are able to live past 100 says something positive about our world today, rather than that they've been forgotten or neglected in some way. Anyone want to tell me I'm wrong? Am I the asshole here?