Dear Editor:
The July 22 editor’s note stated that Canadians under 20 accounted for 19.3% of all COVID cases, whereas those 80 and over accounted for 5%.
Many readers might mistakenly conclude from this that COVID is a much more serious problem for young Canadians. However, our elders number about 1.6 million (4% of the total population of about 38 million) and our young people comprise some 8.1 million (21%). In other words, the official percentage infection rate is much the same for both groups.
Moreover, your numbers ignore – and I will argue, diminish – the fact that while our elders make up only 4% of the nation’s population, as of May 2021 they accounted for a horrific 67% of all COVID deaths.
Numerically, our young people have performed extremely well, demonstrating, an (unvaccinated) recovery rate of virtually 100%, accounting for 0.05% of Canadian COVID deaths as of May. This is not to suggest that any COVID death is to be considered anything less than a human tragedy.
This reality cries out for age-specific SARS CoV-2 programs and policies. It also requires Canadians to, as your writer has said, “put on our critical thinking caps to put things in perspective.”
To this end, it’s time Canadians, as independent thinkers, stop engaging in sophistry and face up to this most-important, fundamental, and humanitarian question: Which is more critical: the case rate or the death rate?
Terence Rothwell,
Wellington North