Don’t Blame Young People For Rising Covid Cases. We Are Only Doing What We’re Told
The push notifications are back.
Like many other news-conscious millennials, this summer I had to turn off a number of Twitter alerts I had from different media outlets. As well as dealing with the genuine concern about the health and wellbeing of my family and friends, my anxiety levels were going through the roof every time my phone buzzed.
The ‘first wave’ of coronavirus apparently ended, society reopened and young, healthy people like me were actively encouraged to ‘eat out to help out’ and to save the economy by going into the office and having a drink after. Normality (sort of) returned, and the push notifications stopped.
But now they’re back.
When my phone buzzed again on Sunday evening, with news that the number of cases of Covid-19 had increased to levels the UK hadn’t seen since May, I know I was not alone in experiencing a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
This feeling only deepened when I saw a news clip of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, forcefully telling us that “young people can infect their grandparents”. Worse yet, a front-page headline glared out at me shortly after, with the ominous threat of “Don’t kill granny with virus”. My despair pretty swiftly turned to anger.
The overwhelming majority of young people had followed the guidelines to the word, all while having every aspect of their lives completely upended.
It’s not even that what Hancock said is factually wrong, it was the condescending tone of the intervention that infuriated me the most. He did not, for example, note that the overwhelming majority of young people had followed the guidelines to the word, including not seeing their grandparents or family members for months, all while having every aspect of their lives completely upended. Not only did he not even acknowledge that young people contracting Covid-19 is in itself a really bad thing, he didn’t even extend to us his wishes for a speedy recovery from a virus that has literally changed all of...
