4 ms·

I’ll bite. There is actually a very simple argument to be made as long as you accept the premise that 1. Death is a natural part of life, and 2. It’s not years

by doteka 6y ago

I’ll bite. There is actually a very simple argument to be made as long as you accept the premise that 1. Death is a natural part of life, and 2. It’s not years of life that should be saved, but _quality_ years of life. I find it unethical to take away all quality of life for hundreds of millions of young people in the prime of their lives, as well as destroying thousands of small businesses, so that bed ridden 90 year olds can be bed ridden for a couple more years, at best. Yet this is exactly what is happening, at least in Europe, with draconian lockdowns and curfews in place while vaccinating groups that didn’t leave their houses pre-COVID either. With how things are going currently in my country my peers and I will be lucky if we can be vaccinated in 2021.

owenmarshall 6y ago
If we are going all in on “project cull the old”, we’re missing a few big things. One that jumps out is a blanket, age-based DNR. A 70 year old who has been refused the shot but subsequently develops Covid is significantly more likely to be hospitalized than your “prime of their life young person”, for whom Covid isn’t nearly as likely to be severe. This means they’re going to be an overall resource strain on the system. It wouldn’t be logical to refuse vaccinations for those most likely to be seriously sickened by the disease but then to try to provide advanced life support when they need it. We will need to convert some percentage of hospital staff into “Covid hospice workers” to allow those who are sick to die as peacefully as one can when their lungs are shutting down.
- doteka 6y ago
  I get that. I don’t think you get my point though. The reason I want young people to get vaccinated is not due to COVID, since they’re very unlikely to have severe complications anyway. In fact, the actual vaccination is not the point at all. The reason I’d like them to be vaccinated is so that normal life can resume to some degree. All public places save for grocery stores and pharmacies have been closed here since early December. There’s been a 9PM curfew in place for a month with no end in sight. People’s mental health is rapidly deteriorating. I would not be making this argument if we were simply required to wear masks and could go about our business as is the situation in many places around the world. But that is not the case at all here.
  - vmception 6y ago
    That's kind of why I want the vaccine early, because there are a lot of underground things that are happening anyway that I'm avoiding. When I could be socially and having fun. I don't think just swapping priority from elderly to prime age is a solution. As elderly will still be the ones bogging down emergency services, making relatively benign injuries a huge massive problem for everyone else. When returning to the normal distribution of emergencies after opening everything up, this is still a disaster for the hospitals.

by doteka 6y ago

owenmarshall 6y ago

If we are going all in on “project cull the old”, we’re missing a few big things. One that jumps out is a blanket, age-based DNR. A 70 year old who has been refused the shot but subsequently develops Covid is significantly more likely to be hospitalized than your “prime of their life young person”, for whom Covid isn’t nearly as likely to be severe. This means they’re going to be an overall resource strain on the system. It wouldn’t be logical to refuse vaccinations for those most likely to be seriously sickened by the disease but then to try to provide advanced life support when they need it. We will need to convert some percentage of hospital staff into “Covid hospice workers” to allow those who are sick to die as peacefully as one can when their lungs are shutting down.

doteka 6y ago
I get that. I don’t think you get my point though. The reason I want young people to get vaccinated is not due to COVID, since they’re very unlikely to have severe complications anyway. In fact, the actual vaccination is not the point at all. The reason I’d like them to be vaccinated is so that normal life can resume to some degree. All public places save for grocery stores and pharmacies have been closed here since early December. There’s been a 9PM curfew in place for a month with no end in sight. People’s mental health is rapidly deteriorating. I would not be making this argument if we were simply required to wear masks and could go about our business as is the situation in many places around the world. But that is not the case at all here.
- vmception 6y ago
  That's kind of why I want the vaccine early, because there are a lot of underground things that are happening anyway that I'm avoiding. When I could be socially and having fun. I don't think just swapping priority from elderly to prime age is a solution. As elderly will still be the ones bogging down emergency services, making relatively benign injuries a huge massive problem for everyone else. When returning to the normal distribution of emergencies after opening everything up, this is still a disaster for the hospitals.