The vast majority of people that die of Covid-19 are old. Nonetheless, I see a tendency for people to understate the Covid risk to non-old people. Here’s some Covid fatality data from December 2 from the Heritage Foundation, by age group in the US:
In fairness, the infection fatality risk is even more lopsided, as there are many fewer people in the 75-84 and 85+ categories. The old really are at much higher risk of dying. However, it’s still true that 48,000 middle-aged people (35-64) have died of Covid and even a couple thousand younger people.
At this point people say, “Yeah, but those middle-aged people have pre-existing conditions like asthma and obesity”, as if that makes it all OK. I don’t get that. I’m 65 and have the pre-existing condition of crappy lungs. If I’d been born in 1800, I might well have died in my mid-30s, like lots of famous artists and composers. But antibiotics likely saved my life and I still play tennis 3 times a week. My mom and stepfather are still alive in their mid-90s. Fat people often live well into their 70s or 80s. Why are middle-aged people with pre-existing conditions now viewed as disposable?
Again, I’m not denying that the risk for old people is more than 10 times higher on a per capita basis, but our society (including conservatives) freaks out about risks that are utterly trivial compared to Covid, such as terrorism. I bet you could find millions of middle-aged people who scoff at the risk of Covid but would be terrified to fly in a MAX737 (where your risk of dying is probably 1000 times lower than from Covid.)
Also keep in mind that the 48,000 figure is a moving target, indeed it’s likely already above 50,000 and will go much higher.
I’m not taking a position here on any public policy issue (I’m skeptical of “lockdowns”, for instance). But people really need to be consistent. If you want to argue that Australia’s success is not that significant because Covid doesn’t kill all that many people who don’t already have one foot in the grave, then you permanently forfeit the right to freak out over any other societal risk that is orders of magnitude less severe.
How many conservatives want to take away the “liberty” of Syrians to move to Germany because the immigrants might boost the murder rate by a few dozen? So what’s more important, liberty or safety?
Where was the conservative criticism of Trump’s various travel bans?
PS. LOL
PPS. LOL squared