If we look at Italy’s first 100K cases and 10K deaths, we observe only about 100 deaths (1%) among people under 50 and only 2 deaths total (0.02%) by people 30 and under. Obviously this sickness impacts young people and there are ways the ER doc articulated that this is different from, and more severe than the flu, even for young people, but the most severe impacts have clearly been among the over 65 crowd. That’s not misinformation, that’s fact.

I think it’s crazy that we’re applying a “one size fits all” mentality for the policy response to this virus given the discrepancy in the impacts that run pretty clearly along lines of age and other known risk factors. People over 65 and people over 50 with several risk factors should be taking this virus a lot more seriously including adhering to strict self-quarantines, but the rest of the population should be given greater freedom to get back to work and school in a responsible way because the impacts are less severe among those populations. It seems we know enough that we could strategically build up herd immunity quicker among people who tend to have mild or no symptoms (30 somethings and children) without overwhelming our healthcare system while providing greater protections for high risk individuals, but instead we’re taking an odd middle road with social distancing for all and cancellation of all schools and Universities. I definitely question this approach on it’s own merits, but even more so considering how it’s impacting the economy and unemployment.