The Moral Arithmetic of a Plague

Does anyone else feel troubled by listing 'underlying conditions' with coronavirus victims? It lets young, seemingly healthy people relax a bit when they should be just as vigilant as everyone else. I know that when I read about coronavirus patients I subtly think 'did they have cancer...heart disease...were they old...whew! Okay, not me.' It's in the back of my mind somewhere. I'm not even saying that the media shouldn't state the underlying conditions, but we are a youth culture that attaches a moral arithmetic to health and age. Our culture has a built-in moral shaming toward people who are sick, obese, and/or old. We think 'well they must have done something to deserve this.' If someone is fat we think 'lazy and anything bad is their fault for not trying hard.' If someone is sick our culture's implicit bias leads people to offer unsolicited tips so they can 'fix' themselves because surely the sick person must have missed a step in self-care. If someone is old we think 'you had a good run. Time's up!' There's a certain amount of pressure that deflates when my mind can look for an excuse. And that's why young people are out playing basketball and football. They kind of feel like if a couple of thousand or hundred thousand old ppl or sick ppl or fatties die...well, that's on them. They've done the moral arithmetic and don't think their actions factor into the health of others.

During the AIDS pandemic, there was a moral arithmetic: gays get what they deserve because of lifestyle choice, an abomination against God, and partying too much. The vast majority of the country was fine with 'them dying' even if the death count was in the millions. It took Ryan White - a straight, white boy- to wake people up that the sickness has no connection to morality. It took Arthur Ashe and Magic Johnson to breakdown the classism.