Re:The most effective malaria vaccine yet discovered
by soperj on Friday April 23, 2021 @03:29PM
(#26918277)
In the US, more people in the 55-74 age range have died than the 85+. Those are people who are taking care of grand children, or are still working. These are people that society has spent decades making fully functioning parts of society. A child has had none of that investment.
A society of just children wouldn't work, just as a society without wouldn't work.
Re:The most effective malaria vaccine yet discovered
by fastball on Friday April 23, 2021 @03:48PM
(#26918455)
Is your goal to just be as misleading as possible in this conversation?
Yes, of course more 55-74s have died – there are far, far more of them than there are >85s. Normalized, COVID is far more lethal (8x more lethal) for >85s than for your range. Here's the mortality rates:
55-74: 0.28%
85+: 2.5%
https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the...
Re:The most effective malaria vaccine yet discovered
by soperj on Friday April 23, 2021 @04:23PM
(#26918784)
How in any way is that misleading?
The actual numbers are more representative than lethality percentages when we're talking about contribution to society.
Re:The most effective malaria vaccine yet discovered
by StavrosK on Friday April 23, 2021 @04:48PM
(#26919025)
What's more representative is "life years lost", and malaria wins there (we've lost many more years to it).
A child dying robs them and the world of 60+ years of human life. An 80 year old dying of COVID-19 was not going to live much longer anyway, so the loss is less severe. Old people have already had the opportunity to live a "full" life.
Imagine two societies – one where a disease kills 50% of < 10s every year, and another that kills 50% of > 70s every year. Which society would do better? Which society would you rather live in?