Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

yorkshirecoastradio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 167 posts

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#111

Post by ramblerman »

sonicggg wrote: post #26

It seems that anecdotal evidence of young people dying of COVID-19 is the trend of the moment. Not sure if it's just cheap clickbait or the goal is to make younger generations to actually care about social distancing. The deal is that we are dealing with the power of large numbers. You can cherry-pick whatever case you want to fit your narrative. It does not mean its relevant information.

Fear sells. This is tragic, but the exception to the rule.

To add some weight to your argument, the official stats from italy offer clear data [1]:

- 1.1% of deaths in Italy - No deaths - 99% with comorbidities, 75% with at least 2 comorbidities.

[1] https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus/bollettino/Report-C...

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#112

Post by Kaiyou »

lgleason wrote: post #100
asveikau wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People think that a low percentage of an outcome means it won't happen. They are wrong. And exactly as you say: if there is a large population of infected people, the absolute number of people who fit in these small percentage tragedies is actually large.

It may be inevitable either way. 100 years ago life expectancy was 46 years. Today it is well into the 70's. Before that, for most of human history that rate was much lower. Up until now, for the past 80 years (post antibiotics) the human race has been really lucky, but perhaps nature is deciding something different. I hope not, but I do wonder.

It has been refuted already, that the life expectancy was this low, with the explanation for the error being given as stillbirths affecting the average.

As far as I know, even 500 years ago it wouldn't have been that difficult to reach age 70 once you've survived your childhood.

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#113

Post by jetset15 »

corpMaverick wrote: post #46
spyspy wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, my parents keep bringing up this narrative every time we talk on the phone. I've reminded them that while me and my fiance dutifully haven't left the house since last Sunday they've happily gone to the grocery store multiple times, attended a funeral, and had wine at their neighbor's house. They also refused to stop babysitting my niece and nephew until I called my brother and convinced him to stop dropp…

As a parent of a young man. I understand why your parents have these fears. They know what they are doing, but they don´t know what you are doing other than what you tell them. Even if they trust you, this is a deeper fear. You could start lecturing your parents about how dangerous this is, so they are convinced that you are taking it seriously.

Lecturing is a good idea, even more so if you rarely lecture your parents back, which I assume a lot of children don't. This is something I did to my parents and it changed the way they are approaching this pandemic. Social distancing is happening here now and they have respected my thoughts and ideas since they're scared and trust the information I'm supplying them is valuable.

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#114

Post by pavon »

sonicggg wrote: post #26

It seems that anecdotal evidence of young people dying of COVID-19 is the trend of the moment. Not sure if it's just cheap clickbait or the goal is to make younger generations to actually care about social distancing. The deal is that we are dealing with the power of large numbers. You can cherry-pick whatever case you want to fit your narrative. It does not mean its relevant information.

It is trying to counter misconceptions that COVID-19 is harmless to young healthy people based on misinterpretations of guidance that elderly and those with preexisting conditions are most at risk. Just because younger people are at less risk doesn't mean they have no risk. While the numbers have been hard to pin down, early data from China showed that more than 10% of people in their 20s-40s with the disease had critical cases. Some other studies outside China have put that number at 15-20%. The number of severe cases is much less, but not 0.

With proper treatment nearly all of those critical cases will survive. But if the health care system becomes overwhelmed that may no longer be true.

It is trying to sink in the idea that young people are not invincible to COVID-19 and that they need to practice social distancing, if not for the benefit of society as a whole, then for their own self benefit.

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#115

Post by jwbwater »

SamBam wrote: post #73
beat wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the parent of adult children currently living at home... one of ours keeps going out to be with friends. I understand she needs to get out of the house sometimes, but it's unnerving, knowing the points of contact (she often goes to her boyfriend's house, with his five currently-unemployed roommates). Then again, she works in a children's health clinic. I know what vector is probably going to bring COVID into our h…

I would really hope that someone working in a health clinic would be more careful than that. Going over to other people's houses is exactly what people are not supposed to be doing. From my observations, the people who are most flippant about this seem to be boomers and young adults 20-25. I still see groups of young adults on the sidewalks, clearly not roommates, even though our state is in lockdown, and we're right…

A healthcare worker I talked to had the opinion that she's getting exposed at work anyway so why not do what she wants outside of work.

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#116

Post by AndrewKemendo »

spyspy wrote: post #32
sonicggg wrote: post #26

It seems that anecdotal evidence of young people dying of COVID-19 is the trend of the moment. Not sure if it's just cheap clickbait or the goal is to make younger generations to actually care about social distancing. The deal is that we are dealing with the power of large numbers. You can cherry-pick whatever case you want to fit your narrative. It does not mean its relevant information.

Anecdotally, my parents keep bringing up this narrative every time we talk on the phone. I've reminded them that while me and my fiance dutifully haven't left the house since last Sunday they've happily gone to the grocery store multiple times, attended a funeral, and had wine at their neighbor's house. They also refused to stop babysitting my niece and nephew until I called my brother and convinced him to stop dropp…

Another anecdote to put on the pile:

I spoke with my mother recently and we were lamenting how people were completely ignoring the "JUST STAY HOME" guidance. As the call was ending she mentioned how she was about to have her sisters and friends over for wine the next day. To which I replied that she was doing exactly what she was lamenting others doing.

I think most people just assume they are the exception and can be trusted to do this correctly, when in fact the guidance is the way it is explicitly because that is not the case.

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#117

Post by josh_fyi »

ramblerman wrote: post #111
sonicggg wrote: post #26

It seems that anecdotal evidence of young people dying of COVID-19 is the trend of the moment. Not sure if it's just cheap clickbait or the goal is to make younger generations to actually care about social distancing. The deal is that we are dealing with the power of large numbers. You can cherry-pick whatever case you want to fit your narrative. It does not mean its relevant information.

Fear sells. This is tragic, but the exception to the rule. To add some weight to your argument, the official stats from italy offer clear data [1]: - 1.1% of deaths in Italy - No deaths - 99% with comorbidities, 75% with at least 2 comorbidities. [1] https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus/bollettino/Report-C...

I don't understand the 99% statistic. It is hard to imagine that any measurement, where errors and odd cases are inevitable, is almost exactly 100%

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#118

Post by Kaiyou »

jamesrcole wrote: post #41
sonicggg wrote: post #26

It seems that anecdotal evidence of young people dying of COVID-19 is the trend of the moment. Not sure if it's just cheap clickbait or the goal is to make younger generations to actually care about social distancing. The deal is that we are dealing with the power of large numbers. You can cherry-pick whatever case you want to fit your narrative. It does not mean its relevant information.

Handfuls of cases are enough to discredit the belief (perhaps not common on HN, but common in many other places) that young people can’t get seriously ill or die from it.

Young people can die in a car crash, too, but that doesn't prevent most people from driving anyway. As long as it's only a small chance, nobody will pay it any mind and keep agreeing, that young people won't die from this.

I mean, there are even cases of young people just randomly dying without any visible cause. Yes, not only the elderly can die just like that. No one really pays this any mind either.

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#119

Post by [deleted] »

jhayward wrote: post #7

I'm puzzled by the intense focus on whether someone who dies had a pre-existing condition. It's like people want to convict the person for their own death, make it look like they were irresponsible, as a denial mechanism. By blaming the person for succumbing to the virus they can fall in to the US-centric mindset of blaming people for their own disfortune, poverty, illness, accident, lack of whiteness, etc. It's real…

[deleted]

Re: Twenty-one year old with no pre-existing conditions dies from Coronavirus

#120

Post by JoeAltmaier »

pavon wrote: post #114
sonicggg wrote: post #26

It seems that anecdotal evidence of young people dying of COVID-19 is the trend of the moment. Not sure if it's just cheap clickbait or the goal is to make younger generations to actually care about social distancing. The deal is that we are dealing with the power of large numbers. You can cherry-pick whatever case you want to fit your narrative. It does not mean its relevant information.

It is trying to counter misconceptions that COVID-19 is harmless to young healthy people based on misinterpretations of guidance that elderly and those with preexisting conditions are most at risk. Just because younger people are at less risk doesn't mean they have no risk. While the numbers have been hard to pin down, early data from China showed that more than 10% of people in their 20s-40s with the disease had cri…

I think I read that statistic differently - that of the critical cases, 10-14% were between 20 to 40.

Not a per-capita number. Not a percentage of young people - a percentage of sick people. Folks in that wide age bracket are around 30% of the US total population. The old - 15%?

Post reply on HN