Pumpkinhead said:

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I'm kind of skeptical how much younger people (in their twenties, university age) actually pay attention to cable news. I know my older kids (in university now) do not. Watching the news is an 'old person' thing.

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If it isn't on buzzfeed they don't know much about it.

Just because the percent of critical cases is lower for young people doesn't mean they won't be part of that percent. Everyone should understand the seriousness of this and do your part to help reduce the spread.

Carolin_Gallego said:

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OP, The disease still hits the young very hard. There are plenty of young people in critical condition due to this disease. Entubulation does not sound like a fun experience.

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It no doubt hits a small percentage young people hard, some of whom may have pre-existing conditions. The vast majority of young and healthy people in America will not be hospitalized for this. Coronavirus will not be anywhere near the top of the list this year for causes of death or hospitalization among the young.

I think for the younger generation this is the most serious issue they have faced in their lifetime. I can understand both the panic and why they were so dismissive of it. For some of the slightly older generation, I know for myself it has a lot to do with fear of not being able to protect my family (wife and two younger girls).

Carolin_Gallego said:

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SirLurksALot said:

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Carolin_Gallego said:

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OP, The disease still hits the young very hard. There are plenty of young people in critical condition due to this disease. Entubulation does not sound like a fun experience.

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It no doubt hits a small percentage young people hard, some of whom may have pre-existing conditions. The vast majority of young and healthy people in America will not be hospitalized for this. Coronavirus will not be anywhere near the top of the list this year for causes of death or hospitalization among the young.

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In this study posted on the CDC website, 20% of hospitalized patients were between the ages of 22 and 44 with 12% in the ICU.

You are downplaying a serious risk to young people's health as well as negleting the serious threat that this disease poses by spreading through infected carriers.

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In what world is 20 to 44 an appropriate age bracket to group?

Carolin_Gallego said:

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SirLurksALot said:

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Carolin_Gallego said:

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OP, The disease still hits the young very hard. There are plenty of young people in critical condition due to this disease. Entubulation does not sound like a fun experience.

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It no doubt hits a small percentage young people hard, some of whom may have pre-existing conditions. The vast majority of young and healthy people in America will not be hospitalized for this. Coronavirus will not be anywhere near the top of the list this year for causes of death or hospitalization among the young.

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In this study posted on the CDC website, 20% of hospitalized patients were between the ages of 22 and 44 with 12% in the ICU.

You are downplaying a serious risk to young people's health as well as negleting the serious threat that this disease poses by spreading through infected carriers.

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That link says between 14% and 20% are hospitalized and only 2% to 4% in the ICU.

That number includes people with pre-existing conditions. This thread was specially about the young and healthy. That number also does not include people with mild or asymptotic cases that were never tested. The real hospitalization rate is likely much lower.

Also not everyone will get this disease. The percentage of young and healthy people contracting the virus and then being hospitalized is even lower.

I am not neglecting anything. Take reasonable precautions, but don't let fear rule your life.

In New Zealand, the age range with the largest number of cases is 20-29 and it's not even close.

Although this is likely due to the amount of travel young people do in this age range and they are being tested upon return.

Add that to the fact they'll hang out with other young people when they are here (not anymore since its in lockdown) they don't want to risk anything.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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I worry that each week that goes by increases the likelihood that "diseases of despair" will easily overtake any damage done by the actual disease.

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I'm concerned that as time passes the likelihood that worrying about the "diseases of despair" will overtake the damage done by the "diseases of despair".

It's a vicious cycle, mannnnn. No one knows what to do, everyone is confused, it will all have an impact. Hope we can all pull through together.

User name checks out.

I have long since had the impression that people in the media, government, and public health have no problem manipulating and misleading you if it gets you to act the way they want.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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User name checks out.

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I checked out a while back. Complete information overload on Covid and Economic topics, I've been researching in circles.

chimpanzee said:

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I have long since had the impression that people in the media, government, and public health have no problem manipulating and misleading you if it gets you to act the way they want.

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I have long since had the impression that too many people have no problem manipulating and misleading others to get their way. Regardless of context or position.

Infection_Ag11 said:

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Most young people have never had an illness with a mortality rate within an order of magnitude of COVID. This would be the worst illness, by far, most of them have ever dealt with.

Fear is understandable

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Yes understandable, but an unreasonable fear of dying for young people with no commodities.

SirLurksALot said:

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There seems to be a significant portion of otherwise young and healthy people that have an unreasonable fear of this disease. I'm not talking about people taking some extra precautions or social distancing. I'm talking about the people that are legitimately scared of going to the grocery store, or the people freaking out because kids are playing outside. I could understand some of this behavior if the person was in the at risk category, or had a family member living with them that was at risk, but it seems like a lot of it isn't coming from those people.

I think we need a little prospective. Even in Italy where Some of the hospitals have been over run the fatality rate for people under 40 is around .5%. People under 50 is slightly higher but still low. That includes people with pre-existing conditions, but doesn't include people who had such a mild case that they were never tested. The real fatality rate or even hospitalization rate for the young and healthy is likely even lower than the numbers we have now indicate. We can't pay attention to just the anecdotal cases of bad outcomes. Sometimes bad things happen in life. Kids get cancer, young and healthy people sometimes die of the flu. This isn't much different than that. We can't focus on the worst cases, just like we don't focus on all the fatal car accidents we see on the nightly news every time we get in a car.

Now let's talk about total fatalities. The estimated number seems to be around 100,000 to 240,000. That is no doubt a tragic amount. However, how many of those people were likely to die this year even if this pandemic never happened? I haven't seen any stats on this, but I'd bet that it is a significant percentage and probably even a majority. The majority of the people dying from this seem to be people that likely only had at most few years left to live anyways. That doesn't make their death less tragic, but I don't understand why we need to be afraid because they died of Coronavirus instead of some other well known disease.

For those of us that are not in the at risk category, we need to take a deep breath, and realize that it's going to be ok. The sun will come up tomorrow. Take some extra precautions, do social distancing, wear a mask if you want to, but don't freak out and don't worry about stuff we can't control.

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Do you have any actual first hand experience with the scenarios you describe in the first paragraph? I'm referring to the people afraid to go outside or someone freaking out about kids playing outside.
I ask because you state that a significant portion of young and healthy people have an unreasonable fear of this disease. Anecdotes on the news or some websites don't represent a "significant" portion of any age group. I think that many of the young people who are staying out of circulation and hoping for others to do the same actually understand the significant number of asymptomatic carriers who can infect others.

Gizzards said:

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SirLurksALot said:

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There seems to be a significant portion of otherwise young and healthy people that have an unreasonable fear of this disease. I'm not talking about people taking some extra precautions or social distancing. I'm talking about the people that are legitimately scared of going to the grocery store, or the people freaking out because kids are playing outside. I could understand some of this behavior if the person was in the at risk category, or had a family member living with them that was at risk, but it seems like a lot of it isn't coming from those people.

I think we need a little prospective. Even in Italy where Some of the hospitals have been over run the fatality rate for people under 40 is around .5%. People under 50 is slightly higher but still low. That includes people with pre-existing conditions, but doesn't include people who had such a mild case that they were never tested. The real fatality rate or even hospitalization rate for the young and healthy is likely even lower than the numbers we have now indicate. We can't pay attention to just the anecdotal cases of bad outcomes. Sometimes bad things happen in life. Kids get cancer, young and healthy people sometimes die of the flu. This isn't much different than that. We can't focus on the worst cases, just like we don't focus on all the fatal car accidents we see on the nightly news every time we get in a car.

Now let's talk about total fatalities. The estimated number seems to be around 100,000 to 240,000. That is no doubt a tragic amount. However, how many of those people were likely to die this year even if this pandemic never happened? I haven't seen any stats on this, but I'd bet that it is a significant percentage and probably even a majority. The majority of the people dying from this seem to be people that likely only had at most few years left to live anyways. That doesn't make their death less tragic, but I don't understand why we need to be afraid because they died of Coronavirus instead of some other well known disease.

For those of us that are not in the at risk category, we need to take a deep breath, and realize that it's going to be ok. The sun will come up tomorrow. Take some extra precautions, do social distancing, wear a mask if you want to, but don't freak out and don't worry about stuff we can't control.

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Do you have any actual first hand experience with the scenarios you describe in the first paragraph? I'm referring to the people afraid to go outside or someone freaking out about kids playing outside.
I ask because you state that a significant portion of young and healthy people have an unreasonable fear of this disease. Anecdotes on the news or some websites don't represent a "significant" portion of any age group. I think that many of the young people who are staying out of circulation and hoping for others to do the same actually understand the significant number of asymptomatic carriers who can infect others.

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A lot was stuff posted on social media, which has already be addressed in this thread. I do have a couple first hand experiences.

I overheard a woman that was probably in her 30s loudly complaining to an employee at HEB because she couldn't go into the chips aisle because there were too many people in there. This was the HEB in the heights and the place was practically empty. There were maybe 40 -50 people in the whole store at the time.

Up until this week my building in downtown Houston has kept the gym and and rooftop open. However due to a resident complaining they are now closed. This not a large complex there are about 80 units in the building, and of those very few use the gym. In the 9 months I've lived here I've never seen more than 2 or 3 people on the roof or in the gym at the same time. The building also provided cleaning supplies next to all the equipment and asked residents to clean the equipment after use. This however, was not enough for the party pooper.

Oh you poor thing. Private gym closed. That must be rough.

aggie1819 said:

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Oh you poor thing. Private gym closed. That must be rough.

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I've started doing kettlebell workouts on the roof of the parking garage. I'm sure they will shut that down soon too. The comrades won't tolerate any activity outside of the residence.

Whereabouts in Colorado? We were in steamboat the weekend it all shut down, but damn I never felt safer. So empty and every staff member cleaning everything.