Would society's response to covid19 be any better if it affected the young more?

[mikeymikec]

If covid19 was more likely to permanently damage / kill younger people (let's say up to 30) than older people, do people here think society's response would be significantly different?

I'm not overly convinced it would make much of a difference, but the old "think of the children!!1" stereotype makes me wonder.

Thoughts?

 

[zinfamous]

no. same people put babies in cages, are very proud of it, and force them to be born in order to live in poverty and orphanages. lol to think that such people actually care about children.

 

[mikeymikec]

no. same people put babies in cages, are very proud of it, and force them to be born in order to live in poverty and orphanages. lol to think that such people actually care about children.

I was thinking more about parents and grandparents facing the risk of having to bury their kid due to covid.

 

[eelw]

Thing is, we still don't know the long term impacts are. Covid lung, heart issues, long term mental damage.

 

[zinfamous]

I was thinking more about parents and grandparents facing the risk of having to bury their kid due to covid.

Such people deny that climate change is real, or more these days, just don't care because "I'll be dead" Meaning...they already don't give a fuck about, or simply don't understand how to to think about their children, let alone anyone else.

They don't care that their generational decisions to vote in debt-spending, deficit raising, "trickle down" sociopathic conservatives has stolen the wages of the generations after them (and their own, really--they just don't accept that plain truth), and the crippling costs of health care and education...all crisis level problems that they have directly saddled on their children, because they simply do not give a fuck about anything beyond themselves, and now. That is literally the definition of a conservative, so yeah, same thing.

They hate children. I'm starting to wonder why they are allowed to procreate, tbh. It's almost like every person that has children and votes conservative should be charged with intentional child endangerment.

 

[MtnMan]

Probably not, the same mentality at play when people don't wear seat belts.

 

[Sunburn74]

It would be a dramatic difference in the response if kids were dying instead of elderly people. Americans don't give a shit about the elderly. If it was kids dying (lets say <18), you'd 100% see the non-politicization of covid and massive shutdowns for a much longer time.

One way to think about it is like this: AIDs was running rampant in america and no one gave a shit. Then a white kid with hemophilia got AIDs from a blood transfusion and everything changed. Reagan started talking about it, the government opened up the pursebook and we got treatments that actually work. Men and women dying en mass from AIDs? The average american doesn't care. But if a few kids die from AIDs, it becomes a protest movement. There's a reason why often the hospitals that get the most charitable donations are children's hospitals (especially children's cancer hospitals) and not adult hospitals.

Probably not, the same mentality at play when people don't wear seat belts.

People don't wear seatbelts when they are driving. But if their kids are in the car, do they put them in seatbelts? the answer is yes. People generally don't fuck around when it comes to their kids in general and the funny thing is the country would be so much better if everyone decided to manage and treat themselves and each other the same way you treat your kids. How many parents try and give their kids healthy food but don't try at all for themselves or ensure their kids get to soccer class for exercise but don't for themselves. Or use seat belts and safety seats and try to keep their kids away from drugs and smoking but not themselves.

 

[esquared]

One way to think about it is like this: AIDs was running rampant in america and no one gave a shit. Then a white kid with hemophilia got AIDs from a blood transfusion and everything changed. Reagan started talking about it, the government opened up the pursebook and we got treatments that actually work. Men and women dying en mass from AIDs? The average american doesn't care. But if a few kids die from AIDs, it becomes a protest movement. There's a reason why often the hospitals that get the most charitable donations are children's hospitals (especially children's cancer hospitals) and not adult hospitals.

Like the COVID-19 deniers, the world also has HIV causes AIDs deniers too.
He still does to this day.
Peter Duesberg.

Duesberg on AIDS- HIV is not the cause of AIDS

Infectious AIDS - Have We Been Misled? This is the official HIV/AIDS research from the University of California Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. This contains the written research works of Professor Peter H. Duesberg on the subject, as well as other scientists that support...

www.duesberg.com

AIDS "Dissident" Seeks Redemption ... and a Cure for Cancer

Biologist Peter Duesberg was all but banished from science for his views on HIV.

www.discovermagazine.com

Debunking the new Duesberg HIV/AIDS Denialist "paper" in IJAE - Debunking Denialism

Peter Duesberg is the among the forefathers of the HIV/AIDS denialist movement. They reject the notion that HIV causes AIDS,

debunkingdenialism.com

I just ran into one yesterday. Doesn't believe in the COVID-19 at all.
Sorry, you just cannot fix stupid.

 

[senseamp]

No, it would only be better if it afflicted the rich more.

 

[MtnMan]

If it effected young adults, i.e. 20+ then it would have little impact. The Spanish Flu of 1918 was much harder on young adults than COVID.

Now if it effected mostly kids, like polio did in the late 40's early 50's it would be a different story.

 

[pete6032]

Based on Fox News comments, no. Young people are lazy pieces of shit dirtbags that deserve to be culled by a pandemic.

 

[BoomerD]

Based on Fox News comments, no. Young people are lazy pieces of shit dirtbags that deserve to be culled by a pandemic.

That part is probably true...


I know early on when old farts were dropping like flies, young people on the various forums were calling it the "Boomer Remover" virus...and I'm still here.

 

[Zorba]

If you started putting kids in graves in mass, there would be a much different response, IMHO. We have transitioned from a world were you expected your kid to die, to a world were having a kid die is considered the worst tragedy a person can live through. I don't see Americans going back to the former without a major fight.

Everyone expects their nursing home family to pass on. I mean, I am doing everything in my power to keep my mother safe from COVID, but she almost died from taking a shit a couple years ago, so her dying of COVID would be much different than my toddler with no health issues dying of COVID.

 

[HomerJS]

No. However if the virus killed white people at 5-7 times the rate of others this administration would have responded differently.

 

[mikeymikec]

No. However if the virus killed white people at 5-7 times the rate of others this administration would have responded differently.

Knowing this administration, if that had happened I think there's a chance that non-whites would have been likened to plague-carrying rats. People from the far east have already caught some flack due to actual current attitudes.

 

[Moonbeam]

Like the COVID-19 deniers, the world also has HIV causes AIDs deniers too.
He still does to this day.
Peter Duesberg.

Duesberg on AIDS- HIV is not the cause of AIDS

Infectious AIDS - Have We Been Misled? This is the official HIV/AIDS research from the University of California Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. This contains the written research works of Professor Peter H. Duesberg on the subject, as well as other scientists that support...

www.duesberg.com

AIDS "Dissident" Seeks Redemption ... and a Cure for Cancer

Biologist Peter Duesberg was all but banished from science for his views on HIV.

www.discovermagazine.com

Debunking the new Duesberg HIV/AIDS Denialist "paper" in IJAE - Debunking Denialism

Peter Duesberg is the among the forefathers of the HIV/AIDS denialist movement. They reject the notion that HIV causes AIDS,

debunkingdenialism.com

I just ran into one yesterday. Doesn't believe in the COVID-19 at all.
Sorry, you just cannot fix stupid.

Maybe stupid like a fox. I'm sure somebody so famous for their imbecility can make money from it. Think of how many other people hitch their wagons to his in order to get attention. I think maybe people like that are con men.

 

[Moonbeam]

If covid19 was more likely to permanently damage / kill younger people (let's say up to 30) than older people, do people here think society's response would be significantly different?

I'm not overly convinced it would make much of a difference, but the old "think of the children!!1" stereotype makes me wonder.

Thoughts?

My thought is that the answers you get are reflections of those who give them. I see some are suspicious and cynical thinking people don't care and I can see their point and think they don't. Others say yes, we would care more if it were children and I think they are right. So since some don't think people care and others say they would care more were it children, those who don't care at all won't care but those would care more were it children will. So some will care more and some probably won't.

 

[Jaskalas]

If you started putting kids in graves in mass, there would be a much different response, IMHO.

The response to this pandemic would also be different if we were on the other side of 1-3 million deaths. We locked down the nation early enough that propagandists were given the space and time to tell people it isn't real. And it has not affected anyone you know. So of course it's fake. Even as it is, when this pandemic finishes burning through its victims - more people will face reality than they do today before it has peaked.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Yes. I think its because the deaths are happening off camera so to speak. I know of a few who died since the start of the pandemic, but they were elderly and in nursing homes, so there was no way to visit them when they got hospitalized. The families didn’t get to have the wakes and funerals, its like it didn’t happen.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have coworkers who caught it and got by with mild, cold like symptoms.

The patterns of the disease reinforce those who wish to believe its no big deal. I do believe that would change if more young people got seriously ill.

 

[Muse]

Yeah, it would be.

 

[eelw]

Only if this specifically affected obese 74 year olds, with hair plugs and obsession in tanning and poor eating habits and couldn't recover after receiving treatments

 

[mect]

Honestly, if it affected mainly the young it seems like a bigger response would be warranted. I mean, it takes far fewer young deaths to total the same loss of years as a lot more elderly people. People aren't immortal, everybody dies someday. The death of someone who has lived their life is far less tragic in most people's opinion than the death of someone that didn't get that chance.

Sadly, I don't think it would have made any difference though. The two biggest problems with Covid are republican's outright rejection of science thanks to Trump and the fact that most people aren't smart enough/educated enough to understand statistics. Its the same problem we have with people understanding polls. Covid has a statistically low enough death rate that many people don't interpret it as dangerous. I've constantly seen people scoff at the fear, saying things like "it only has a 1% death rate". People just don't seem to understand that having a 1% chance of dying is pretty fucking scary. People aren't able to grasp the difference between differing levels of low probabilities. They don't get the difference between a 1% chance of dying vs a 0.0001% chance of dying. Both of those are equivalent for a lot of people.

 

[Muse]

Honestly, if it affected mainly the young it seems like a bigger response would be warranted. I mean, it takes far fewer young deaths to total the same loss of years as a lot more elderly people. People aren't immortal, everybody dies someday. The death of someone who has lived their life is far less tragic in most people's opinion than the death of someone that didn't get that chance.

Sadly, I don't think it would have made any difference though. The two biggest problems with Covid are republican's outright rejection of science thanks to Trump and the fact that most people aren't smart enough/educated enough to understand statistics. Its the same problem we have with people understanding polls. Covid has a statistically low enough death rate that many people don't interpret it as dangerous. I've constantly seen people scoff at the fear, saying things like "it only has a 1% death rate". People just don't seem to understand that having a 1% chance of dying is pretty fucking scary. People aren't able to grasp the difference between differing levels of low probabilities. They don't get the difference between a 1% chance of dying vs a 0.0001% chance of dying. Both of those are equivalent for a lot of people.

Actually it's more complex than that. The asymptomatic spread, the intense affect on the medical community of the fairly large percentage of cases that required hospitalization, the aerosol high contagion, the lingering affects, the fact that covid-19 causes a wider variety of affects on the human body than any other pathogen in human history, the exponentially accelerating catastrophic effects on the economy, all these things are not readily understandable by a lot of people. You have to have some education, some imagination, the ability to grapple with the facts and not turn away from them. Trump never had a chance at this, it's way over his head and anyone who insisted he pay attention to what was really going on got shoved to the side or outright replaced. The GOP with the rarest of exceptions were cowards in confronting the federal administration concerning the real nature of the pandemic.

 

[vi edit]

If you started putting kids in graves in mass, there would be a much different response, IMHO. We have transitioned from a world were you expected your kid to die, to a world were having a kid die is considered the worst tragedy a person can live through. I don't see Americans going back to the former without a major fight.

Everyone expects their nursing home family to pass on. I mean, I am doing everything in my power to keep my mother safe from COVID, but she almost died from taking a shit a couple years ago, so her dying of COVID would be much different than my toddler with no health issues dying of COVID.

Initially my thought was no, but really once thinking about it, I agree with this. One or two kids and the chuds will toss it up as a fluke. You start putting a 1000 kids into the grave daily and yeah, some eyes are going to open up. So long as they are cute white kids.

 

[vi edit]

We only care about kids to a certain point though.
Long before Covid...

Malaria kills one child every 30 seconds, about 3000 children every day. Over one million people die from malaria each year, mostly children under five years of age, with 90 per cent of malaria cases occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa

https://www.unicef.org/media/files/MALARIAFACTSHEETAFRICA.pdf

But it's not cute, white American kids. So..thoughts and prayers.