I know I probably seem like I oscillate between coronavirus concern and dismissal. Where I'm actually coming from is a place of deep frustration, because some of the highest costs of a blunt response fall on those for whom it is not, statistically, a particularly deadly illness

Based on the most recent CDC data, there have been 2,380 COVID deaths in the US that hit people under the age of 35. <1% of the US total. These are people who were already struggling to get effective educations, date/form families, start careers, and build wealth

To be clear, ~2.4k deaths is still a lot of deaths for young people. Typically, we don't die! Mortality for under-35s from COVID will be *at least* 10x vs. the flu this year, and possibly closer to 20x. But this cohort is arguably at much greater risk from the surrounding turmoil

For comparison, 14,827 under-35s died by suicide in 2018 (the most recent data I could easily find). Adding in drug OD & possibly complications from alcoholism (though this may require a few more years to compound), the strain of the response becomes a major threat to this cohort

IMO, the big question — and probably an unanswerable one — is how many millennials and Gen Zers wind up living considerably worse lives over decades even in instances where they presented a very limited threat to older cohorts that they weren't generally mingling with?

The problem is, obviously, much easier — though no less painful — for young people who have a lot of necessitated contact with the elderly.