No thanks, time to stop mask wearing and let the virus rip through the unvaccinated. Make them face the consequences of their foolishness
The people seriously at risk from COVID are unvaccinated adults.
But perhaps you don't care about that sort of thing.
[1] https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/08/long-cov...
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.23.21250375v...
My best guess is that it's around 10%-20% -- that's sort of in the middle where studies land.
I suspect a big part of the problem is which child and which COVID. I would speculate alpha, delta, mu, etc. all have different rates.
I think the second question is the distribution of symptoms. None of the studies are sensitive enough to pick up a 5% loss in IQ, lung capacity, or similar. Do some kids get it and others don't? Or is there a bell curve of symptoms, and we're picking up kids with the more extreme versions?
If it's a bell curve, it's pretty scary. All kids could be harmed to the level of e.g. lead exposure, and we wouldn't notice.
However, I am an advocate for not letting the virus rip through the unvaccinated. I like people alive and I like our hospital systems unburdened.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/highrisk/children.htm#danger
> CDC estimates that from the 2010-2011 season to the 2019-2020 season, flu-related hospitalizations among children younger than 5 years old have ranged from 7,000 to 26,000 in the United States.
This risk, by the way, may also be higher than people want to admit. I think it's nuts how many schools don't require the annual flu vaccine, not to mention how few Americans get said vaccine in general. That said, the very real risk of the flu—which can also cause long-term complications—does not cause us to all upend our lives, nor should it.
https://www.khou.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/verify-...
> COVID-19 and the flu combined make up less than 1% of all pediatric deaths since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020.
Someone said upthread that "it’s not [my] place to decide the risk for other people’s children," and that is absolutely true in a broad sense! Unfortunately, I have to make decisions around (1) whether or not to vote for politicians who support re-opening schools, and (2) whether or not I go out to restaurants, shows, and social events.
Right, and so this is where I disagree with the OP. I don't want anyone to die—I want everyone to be safe and healthy, including people who make bad choices.
However, I don't think that I have a responsibility to protect the people who insist on making bad choices. I absolutely did have that responsibility early in the pandemic, and I acted accordingly—I stayed home, I wore a mask, I turned down get-togethers, etc.
Now things are different. Vaccines are readily available in the US (and especially in the metropolitan New York area where I live), and any adult who is still unvaccinated has made an explicit decision to live dangerously. And I still don't want them to die—but I also want to go out with friends, and I'm not willing to give that up for the sake of people who can't be bothered to protect themselves!
Take comfort in the fact that the maliciously ignorant already punish themselves in a thousand little ways every day. However, no amount of comeuppance will cause those people to recognize their own actions as the source of their problems.
It was for the flu. Of course from what I understand Covid is worse than the flu. But in most western countries, during the flu season, it is (or at least was) acceptable to not get the vaccine, not wear masks, etc. Old people were expected to get vaccinated since they were the most vulnerable, but even that was on a voluntary basis. So there are some cases where writing off people as collateral damage is an acceptable public policy.
2017-2018 - 61,000 Deaths in the US from Influenza with NO masks or vaccines or lockdowns
2020-Present - 651,000 Deaths in the US from Covid with masks, vaccines, lockdowns, distancing, etc.
Even with those numbers being off think of the difference there and why one should be a little more push for the Covid vaccine.
If i had to choose between getting the flu and getting covid i will choose the flu every time. Would anyone choose differently?
It doesn't look like it will be, but it'd be nice.
I actually think all the contact tracing stuff would do it. If we had zero tolerance for colds and flues -- we quarantine everyone who gets them and their contacts -- we'd end up at close to zero cases, and close to zero actual quarantines.
I actually think steady-state, we'd need fewer quarantines than the number of people flu kills. Flues kill 60k per season. I think 60k quarantines would be more than adequate for containing it.