Ageism Is Making the Pandemic Worse

Envision, for a moment, a world in which the rapidly spreading coronavirus is mostly infecting people under the age of 50. Imagine that the death toll is highest among children and that, as of today, the United States had reported more than 104,000 confirmed cases and at least 1,700 deaths, mostly among middle schoolers. Imagine that scientists suspect elders are at lower risk based on past exposure to similar viruses. How would you react to a disease that was mostly killing young people planetwide?

If your imagined reaction differs from your current one, then we must ask some hard questions. Most crucial: Is the reality that are most likely to get ill and die from COVID-19 affecting the way countries—particularly the U.S.—are responding to the pandemic? There are many logistical and political reasons why compared with other countries’. But as a doctor, I’ve encountered evidence that