beast of the east
Active member
I disagree strongly regarding the distortion of the arguments about age.
Younger people tend to think because of age they are almost immune, or if they contract the disease it will be mild. My kids that are in the early 30's are both very athletic, 7 day a week fitness crazed, and both are taking precautions. One caught a bad case of Covid, and still does not have the sense of taste back. Her IGM, just gotten back was very high, indicating a bad exposure. The other one's is 0.0, which is good, considering her husband had only a 2 day fever, but his numbers are as high as my first daughter's.
It is not JUST about compromised health. Your susceptibility to Covid, or response to it actually, is a function of the state of your immune system. I am close to the high risk age group, but I have also had Lyme disease 5 times without a single symptom in any case. I had a mild case of Covid, and the only symptoms I had were a low grade fever of about 99, tiredness, and initally a weird feeling on the top of my skull as if I had bumped my head, a tenderness.
You immune system weakens with age. That's a fact. It is not fully developed until age 16 or so, and starts to weaken beginning at age 30. An athlete can extend this by about 10 years. Nursing home patients who have died were not necessarily in compromised health with underlying disease states, but with age weakened immune systems, some much worse than others.
That being said, there have been people with zero underlying conditions under the age of 40 who have died from this. Children have now been affected, with what appears to be an inflammatory disease response to Kawasaki disease. A handful of children under the age of 10 have died, with more likely.
I say this not to negate what has been posted here. A total asshole who lives a few houses from me who is about 29 has had two house parties in his yard with 12-20 friends (one last night), no masks or gloves, no distancing, a sort of "Fuck you Corona" party. Of course, any of them could be infected and not know it, spread it each other, who then bring it home to people with declining immune system.
In my area, poorer communities of Elmont, Hempstead, Brentwood, Westbury - virtually every poorer community has had verified Covid infections as much as 15X the rate of neighboring towns. This is even with much worse access to testing and healthcare than their wealthier neighbors. There are many reasons for this, but suffice to say, it isn't because they have greater incidence of underlying diseases or that the average age is much higher.
In those poorer communities, more people are involved in jobs where they had to work. Healthcare aides, hospital workers, supermarket workers, even some manual labor. They may live in more density closer together housing.
I know we HAVE to get back to work and sooner than is comfortable for most. I think careful planning can allow more distancing at work, where an office is initially only 50% occupied and slowly increase as numbers go down. We have a massive problem in NYC, because the transit system is just a breeding ground. Certain businesses can function reasonably well with work at home, some cannot. some have inherent risks, like gyms where it is impractical to work out with masks and gloves, and you are constantly handling equipment that sweaty hands have just touched.
I know the economic impact of this has affected far more people, and the government cannot simply dole out trillions to cover tens of million people out of work and hundreds of thousands of businesses shuttered or severely hurt by the pandemic. The economic fallout already will likely last for years. State and federal taxes will almost certainly have to be increased to cover these costs.
Our national debt for 2021 was projected to be $966 billion. Could that increase by 10X? It seems to be yes, but I am no economist.
I think the areas that generate the most revenue geographically will unfortunately recover with the most inherent dangers, such as NYC.
We cannot minimize the risk to public health, but we also have to push the boundaries of restoring our economy. It's risky business for sure, which is why we need the healthy (pun intended) discourse of health officials pushing as they should in one direction, and business leaders in the others. Smart compromises should end up with a result somewhere in the middle.
Younger people tend to think because of age they are almost immune, or if they contract the disease it will be mild. My kids that are in the early 30's are both very athletic, 7 day a week fitness crazed, and both are taking precautions. One caught a bad case of Covid, and still does not have the sense of taste back. Her IGM, just gotten back was very high, indicating a bad exposure. The other one's is 0.0, which is good, considering her husband had only a 2 day fever, but his numbers are as high as my first daughter's.
It is not JUST about compromised health. Your susceptibility to Covid, or response to it actually, is a function of the state of your immune system. I am close to the high risk age group, but I have also had Lyme disease 5 times without a single symptom in any case. I had a mild case of Covid, and the only symptoms I had were a low grade fever of about 99, tiredness, and initally a weird feeling on the top of my skull as if I had bumped my head, a tenderness.
You immune system weakens with age. That's a fact. It is not fully developed until age 16 or so, and starts to weaken beginning at age 30. An athlete can extend this by about 10 years. Nursing home patients who have died were not necessarily in compromised health with underlying disease states, but with age weakened immune systems, some much worse than others.
That being said, there have been people with zero underlying conditions under the age of 40 who have died from this. Children have now been affected, with what appears to be an inflammatory disease response to Kawasaki disease. A handful of children under the age of 10 have died, with more likely.
I say this not to negate what has been posted here. A total asshole who lives a few houses from me who is about 29 has had two house parties in his yard with 12-20 friends (one last night), no masks or gloves, no distancing, a sort of "Fuck you Corona" party. Of course, any of them could be infected and not know it, spread it each other, who then bring it home to people with declining immune system.
In my area, poorer communities of Elmont, Hempstead, Brentwood, Westbury - virtually every poorer community has had verified Covid infections as much as 15X the rate of neighboring towns. This is even with much worse access to testing and healthcare than their wealthier neighbors. There are many reasons for this, but suffice to say, it isn't because they have greater incidence of underlying diseases or that the average age is much higher.
In those poorer communities, more people are involved in jobs where they had to work. Healthcare aides, hospital workers, supermarket workers, even some manual labor. They may live in more density closer together housing.
I know we HAVE to get back to work and sooner than is comfortable for most. I think careful planning can allow more distancing at work, where an office is initially only 50% occupied and slowly increase as numbers go down. We have a massive problem in NYC, because the transit system is just a breeding ground. Certain businesses can function reasonably well with work at home, some cannot. some have inherent risks, like gyms where it is impractical to work out with masks and gloves, and you are constantly handling equipment that sweaty hands have just touched.
I know the economic impact of this has affected far more people, and the government cannot simply dole out trillions to cover tens of million people out of work and hundreds of thousands of businesses shuttered or severely hurt by the pandemic. The economic fallout already will likely last for years. State and federal taxes will almost certainly have to be increased to cover these costs.
Our national debt for 2021 was projected to be $966 billion. Could that increase by 10X? It seems to be yes, but I am no economist.
I think the areas that generate the most revenue geographically will unfortunately recover with the most inherent dangers, such as NYC.
We cannot minimize the risk to public health, but we also have to push the boundaries of restoring our economy. It's risky business for sure, which is why we need the healthy (pun intended) discourse of health officials pushing as they should in one direction, and business leaders in the others. Smart compromises should end up with a result somewhere in the middle.
