We are triaging the young and healthy for the sake of the elderly and already sick. We are not all in this together. It is families and people who need to work paying the cost in terms of lost jobs, crushed hopes and lost homes so old people can feel safe.

We are destroying our economy, our society and future generations to fight an old people’s disease that doesn’t even hit all old people, just mostly those who spent decades smoking, overeating, not taking care of themselves or, sadly, just falling apart as we all do near the end of our race.

This is nuts. It is the exact opposite of what rational societies do.

THE NURSING HOME VIRUS

We could rename COVID-19 the “nursing home virus.” Nearly two-thirds of its fatalities in this state have occurred in nursing homes or other senior facilities. In King County, which has been driving most policy decisions, 70% of COVID fatalities were in skilled nursing facilities.  Across the nation, it is nursing home deaths that account for the substantial majority of COVID deaths.

Outside nursing homes, COVID deaths are concentrated almost exclusively in the elderly. While those under age 60 in Washington account for 68% of the diagnoses, very few of them have died or required hospitalization. The vast majority experienced no symptoms, or symptoms serious enough to require medical intervention. Many just stayed home for two weeks.

The deaths outside nursing homes or other senior facilities are concentrated not in the elderly, but in a small demographic cohort: the elderly with serious other health issues. Brought on by unwise life choices or other causes, obesity, hypertension, weak hearts and compromised cardiovascular systems, and damaged lungs from decades of smoking or other causes made them victims to a virus that little troubles most people who are exposed to it. Healthy old people have generally not been felled by the virus. They have been strong enough to fight it off, though the fight can be grueling.

52% of COVID deaths were those over age 80. When the next cohort is added in, those above age 60, they account for 90% of all COVID deaths.

The Washington Department of Health reports that 9% of deaths were among people aged 40-59, and 1% aged 20-39. The message is clear: COVID is not a threat to those under age 60, and generally not a threat to those who are otherwise healthy.

Though the DOH does not break out the numbers, the Seattle Times’ reporting indicates that a  significant number of the non-nursing home deaths may be attributable to the homeless population, well known to be plagued with serious, life-threatening health conditions before the pandemic landed.

We now know, therefore, that the severity of the pandemic is limited fairly clearly to distinct quite elderly, already sick and already maybe dying populations. COVID is not a lonely killer. Other factors were already attacking those who succumbed.

But it is the young and healthy that we have been triaging. It is their lives we have been and will continue destroying.

It is worth repeating: this is nuts. Never before in medical history has government on such a massive scale destroyed its people’s well-being to save such a limited, otherwise easily isolated and protectable population, a population that would normally be that to be triaged in favor of the healthy, the productive, the young, and those not needing massive expenditures of public health resources.

It is those who are being triaged for no good reason who are angry and leading the protests against the Governor’s arbitrary, illogical and, in many ways, corrupt lock down order.

WHAT THE ELDERLY OWE THE YOUNG

I am in that group for which young families are sacrificing their jobs and dreams. Like many of the elderly in and around Port Townsend, I don’t need to work. Ironically, while working families and sole proprietors have seen their financial stability crushed, I’ve actually been making money as the stock market has rebounded. I know I am not alone in that good fortune.

Yet young people are being forced out of jobs and careers for my benefit. How many times can I repeat it: This is nuts.

It is my responsibility to protect myself. I have a full life behind me. The finish line is up ahead (hopefully, not just a few steps ahead, but it is not so far away I can’t see it). Those who are just starting their lives, building families, building community instead of feeding off it, they deserve my sacrifice, not the other way around.

And what is that sacrifice? Wearing a mask, social distancing, washing hands and not touching my face, keeping contact surfaces clean. That little effort pales in comparison with the nightmare government is inflicting on the young for my sake.

Unfortunately, too many vocal and politically influential old people in this community do not share this attitude. They want to keep businesses closed. Too many old people who wear masks when they are alone on a beach or walking in woods are pressuring government leaders to heed their outsized fears instead of making rational decisions that put on the scales the full weight of the cost and suffering of destroying our economy.

The fearful are objecting to taking advantage of an opportunity for an early reopen of Jefferson County businesses. Though the Governor concludes that Jefferson County’s low COVID risk entitles it to move to Phase 2 in his statewide plan, local leaders, hearing and feeling the fear, have opted to let the early opportunity pass. They claim that otherwise, with Seattle only a couple hours or less away, we will draw tourists escaping cabin fever.

Fear is a liar. Very few of the businesses that could reopen under an early Phase 2 rollout would be tourist businesses. The selfish fear of the old is keeping closed new home construction, manufacturing, office businesses, in-home services, and hair and nail salons. None of these are tourist oriented businesses. (That lie also ignores the fact that real estate brokerages, such as that owned by Port Townsend’s Mayor, have never closed, though they have been attracting buyers from Seattle, California and elsewhere. Like I said, fear is a liar.)

It is time to stop triaging the young and healthy. Open Jefferson County now. Let the old protect themselves so the next generations may enjoy the same good life we did. Otherwise, many of us oldsters will be gone while those behind us are still paying the price for our fear and selfishness.