Paris COVID-19 Quarantine – Day 5
There has been outrage in many parts of the world at many ignoring quarantines or restrictions to gather. Young Americans were more concerned about their spring break being messed up, Bonhi Beach, Tamarama and Bronte in Australia were closed after people ignored social distancing, France has closed some parks and beaches, Germany will lock down parks if the current situation continues, etc...
The extremities of the two points of view can basically be shown with the warning by the WHO Director-General and the views of some Spring Breakers in the U.S.
"Today, I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks, or even kill you,"
"If I get corona, I get corona. At the end of the day, I'm not going to let it stop me from partying."
Perhaps looking at it a slightly different way might be a better way to encourage people to maintain social distancing than how they are being told. Because it is true, younger people have a seriously lower risk of dying from the virus. Possibly it would be better to point out that one of the reasons for this may not be because of their super invincibility but instead because many countries in the world have health systems that prioritise the young.
Now, what exactly do I mean by that?
Well, health systems aren't really user pays in much of the world. If that was true then baby's would be dying and the elderly saved as the elderly have already paid through years of taxation. Hell, smokers would have eight nurses and a foot massage every night.
Many health systems (New Zealand for instance) use methods like who is most likely to survive. These are broadly moral and economic justifications for saving the young, both because they are young and because they are the future tax base. Cynical aren't I?
So what happens when a twenty year old hits the system is that they are prioritised over the older people, all the older people. And somewhere at the other end of that equation a seventy-one year old smoker who probably would have survived with oxygen doesn't get it and dies. That person had essentially paid for the system that is now choosing to save another person just because they are younger. Yes, ageism lives and favors the young. Like I said, health isn't user pays. If it was the statistics would probably show a much greater rate of the young dying as they lie abandoned and unable to breath with their lungs filled with fluid.
It's a lot easier to feel invincible when the system is there to pick you back up. Interesting thought that.
Of course, since the young are invincible and statistically at lower risk of serious side effects perhaps they should just stay at work :)
But back to Day 5
Another slow day. We are playing a lot more instruments. Angelynn went to the supermarket again and then the Pharmacy. At 8:00PM we applauded the work of the health professionals of France. I talked to my cousins to see if they were doing the same and they said yes and they had told their young daughter that the clapping was actually for her. :)
It looks like the health professionals of France deserve to be applauded as well with new cases and daily deaths dropping again. Absolutely incredible if the trend holds but it has been over a week now and that is about as long as you can go without people starting to fall over from exhaustion and needing to be swapped out.
We shall see tomorrow.
