Scared, Stupid and Easily Manipulated, What Covid has revealed about the Nations Youth

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Issues & Insights

The saying goes that crises reveal your true nature. If that’s the case, we are in big trouble, because what COVID has revealed about young people in America is not good.

A new Morning Consult poll out this week finds that young people are the most worried about getting COVID of any age group — even though their risk from the disease is negligible.

At the other end of the spectrum, the elderly are much less worried, even though they are at the highest risk of death.

 

The poll found that 23% of those between ages 18-34 are “very worried about getting sick from COVID-19 within the next year.” That’s the highest of any of the age groups broken out by the survey. Another 35% are “somewhat” worried. Just 38% say they aren’t worried.

Among those 65 and older, in contrast, only 17% are “very worried,” while 39% aren’t worried.

Why in the world are young people so terrified of COVID?

The data, after all, could not be more clear: the young are not only less likely to get COVID in the coming year than any other age group, they are at minimal risk of having any serious complications from it.

CDC data show that a far larger share of 18-39 year-olds has already gotten COVID than any other age group. This age group makes up 30% of the population, but 38% of all COVID cases. That’s compared with the 65-and-up crowd, which makes up 17% of the population but only 12% of COVID cases. So it stands to reason that the young are the least likely to get it this year for the simple reason that so many of them already have a natural immunity,

The data also make it clear that if they do get it, the young face negligible risks from COVID. Of all the deaths so far, just 2.5% involve those 18-39. Those over 65, on the other hand, account for 76% of the deaths.