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Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

I still say, let everyone make the decision for themselves. Many old people (the majority) that get COVID don't die, but recover. They can attend performances.

I don't see why we need to destroy everyone's lives for a minority of high risk people. Let everyone make their own decisions rather than use the iron fist of government to decide for us.

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It's not only high risk people who get the disease, or even only high risk people who die. And, those same "young and healthy" people you're wanting to let loose still suffer serious aftereffects. You're trivializing it by saying "only old people die," not the least because it's it's not true.

Disagree - the statistics say the vast majority of those who get COVID when they are young recover. This is why outbreaks at colleges get a lot of attention for the cases, but no follow up because no one dies. You look at the oddball death and panic over it. But this is not the norm!

Binary live-vs.-die statistics aren't the full story. This illness is known to cause lingering side effects (lungs and heart) that in particular would affect those in physically demanding careers -- e.g. musicians and dancers as was mentioned by OP.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects.... https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/08/athletes-co...

What is the incidence rate and magnitude of COVID effects in young people? One should naturally expect such a follow up question when quantifying death and risk in public policy.

Further, those young people who don't die still take the disease back out into public with them, spreading it elsewhere. This is why simply saying "let people who think they are invulnerable do whatever" doesn't work, because even if they are in fact unkillable their actions can still result in the deaths of others.

Can you quantify how much damage the virus will do to young people, including the incidence rate of serious side effects in young people?

> I still say, let everyone make the decision for themselves. Many old people (the majority) that get COVID don't die, but recover. They can attend performances.

While we're at it, let's do the same with drunk driving. After all, most intoxicated drivers don't actually get into accidents and many drive large safe cars that protect them well. Why shouldn't they get to decide their own risk preference for themselves? /s

Because your beliefs directly challenge those who believe everyone must wear a mask, and everyone be locked down. No one can stand to be challenged anymore, and they react very negatively.

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