“I reminded her about the delta variant and how it’s caused so many children her age to end up in the ICU. I told her that she only has to wait a few more months until she’s eligible for the vaccine, and this isn’t the time to become complacent.”
I genuinely do not understand how it’s possible to so fundamentally not comprehend risk. To be clear, from the best of our calculations, the probability of COVID hospitalizations in eleven-year-olds is substantially less than the probability of flu hospitalization. In fact, even contingent on an eleven-year-old getting the virus from one hangout with another eleven-year-old, the probability of them being hospitalized is 0.1-2%, and the probability of death is a rounding error to zero.
Parents who are destroying their kids’ lives for years and causing permanent mental health damages because of significant overreactions to COVID are not being “cautious,” they’re being destructive and borderline abusive (in fact, I’d say that this specific situation teeters on child abuse. Quarantining a child in their bedroom for two weeks? To avoid what, spreading it to.… fully vaccinated parents with no pre-existing conditions? Jesus.)
I might be preaching to the choir here; I’m just sick and tired of the complete lack of basic risk calculations being made. No, kids should not mask in schools indefinitely, and in fact having more oppressive restrictions on kids than adults is absolutely ridiculous. I really hope we can finally get legislators to come to their senses about this, because right now this situation is patently ridiculous.
You’re not preaching, you’re noticing you are confused. Which is good.
I am not confused here, because the media is running stories about kids ending up in the ICU and most people don’t think about base rates, so it’s unsurprising that many parents think like this. Also see satanic child abuse cults, or stranger danger, or poisoned Halloween candy, etc etc.
You’re right. I think this is shocking me because it affects so many people I know and generally expect to be more calibrated in their beliefs, and the all-too-common handwaving of “we don’t know enough about COVID” is not a free pass to be overcautious. That is, people I expect better from are overestimating the risk of the virus to a similar degree that anti-vaxxers are underestimating the risk of the virus/overestimating the risks of the vaccine, which is genuinely dangerous. Mixed messaging from the CDC and news establishments isn’t helping either.
“I reminded her about the delta variant and how it’s caused so many children her age to end up in the ICU. I told her that she only has to wait a few more months until she’s eligible for the vaccine, and this isn’t the time to become complacent.”
I genuinely do not understand how it’s possible to so fundamentally not comprehend risk. To be clear, from the best of our calculations, the probability of COVID hospitalizations in eleven-year-olds is substantially less than the probability of flu hospitalization. In fact, even contingent on an eleven-year-old getting the virus from one hangout with another eleven-year-old, the probability of them being hospitalized is 0.1-2%, and the probability of death is a rounding error to zero.
Parents who are destroying their kids’ lives for years and causing permanent mental health damages because of significant overreactions to COVID are not being “cautious,” they’re being destructive and borderline abusive (in fact, I’d say that this specific situation teeters on child abuse. Quarantining a child in their bedroom for two weeks? To avoid what, spreading it to.… fully vaccinated parents with no pre-existing conditions? Jesus.)
I might be preaching to the choir here; I’m just sick and tired of the complete lack of basic risk calculations being made. No, kids should not mask in schools indefinitely, and in fact having more oppressive restrictions on kids than adults is absolutely ridiculous. I really hope we can finally get legislators to come to their senses about this, because right now this situation is patently ridiculous.
You’re not preaching, you’re noticing you are confused. Which is good.
I am not confused here, because the media is running stories about kids ending up in the ICU and most people don’t think about base rates, so it’s unsurprising that many parents think like this. Also see satanic child abuse cults, or stranger danger, or poisoned Halloween candy, etc etc.
You’re right. I think this is shocking me because it affects so many people I know and generally expect to be more calibrated in their beliefs, and the all-too-common handwaving of “we don’t know enough about COVID” is not a free pass to be overcautious. That is, people I expect better from are overestimating the risk of the virus to a similar degree that anti-vaxxers are underestimating the risk of the virus/overestimating the risks of the vaccine, which is genuinely dangerous. Mixed messaging from the CDC and news establishments isn’t helping either.
There are two types of antivaxxers. Those who had covid and recovered and those who did not.
The ones that had covid and recovered do not underestimate the risk of the virus to themselves.