We need to actively and consciously include naunce in the warnings about the threat COVID poses in stories like this.<p>There is a vast gulf between how the public perceives the threat of COVID, and the reality of that threat.<p>As per Bill Maher, registered Democrats in particular vastly over-estimate the risk it poses:<p><a href="https://twitter.com/reneeonline/status/1439369640937930752?s=20" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/reneeonline/status/1439369640937930752?s...</a><p>The reality is that the risk is largely dependent on a few risk factors: age, obesity and vaccination status.<p>For children, the risk is close to zero (as per the CDC, the IFR is 0.002%, or on par with that posed by a bee sting). For the elderly, that is 70 plus, the IFR goes up to 5%, and it is higher still for subset of the elderly who are institutionalized.<p>The vaccinated also face a vastly lower risk from the virus.<p>Why this matters is that an over-estimation of the risk for low-risk demographics has led to behavioral patterns that are net harmful. For example, the climate of fear around COVID has maybe reduced the very minute risk the virus poses to children, at the cost of an unprecedented rise in childhood obesity:<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm?s_cid=mm7037a3_w" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm?s_cid=mm...</a><p>"Among a cohort of 432,302 persons aged 2–19, rate of body mass index increase approximately doubled during pandemic compared to prepandemic period. Persons w/ prepandemic overweight or obesity & younger school-aged children experienced largest increases."<p>The response to COVID, with respect to children, is going to cause far more deaths in the long run than it mitigates.