By Emily Duggan
Granite State News Collaborative
To Benjamin Strawbridge, it’s simple.
He believes that millennials have forgotten about the risk of contracting COVID-19 as the heat of summer approaches.
“The science has proven that the current wave of coronavirus slamming our shores is deadly and does not discriminate against any group of people regardless of their location,” Strawbridge, a recent graduate of The University of New Hampshire said. “This is what makes the current youth ignorance towards COVID-19 so dangerous and shameful.”
The “ignorance” that Strawbridge, 22, refers to has been seen across several states in the past week, as young adults flocked, for example, to Florida beaches, prompting them to close as coronavirus cases surge, hitting 54,985 new cases last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The median age to contract the virus in Florida went from 65 to 36, the Sun Sentinel reported. Texas is in a similar situation as Florida, where in Hays County, 476 of the 938 cases after Memorial Day consisted of people in their 20s, The Texas Tribune Reported.
“I feel like this stems from two factors -- an urge for freedom and self-entitlement,” said Benjamin Strawbridge, 22, of millennials not adhering to guidelines when it comes to Covid-19. “Regarding the former, and numerous college students who have had their end-of-the-semester activities and graduation ‘stolen’ from them by the virus feel sick and tired of quarantining in their homes and are using their youth and more active immune systems as excuses to ignore masks and social distancing recommendations.”
New Hampshire has mostly opened for the summer, with restaurants in COVID-19 populated counties able to open with capacity up to fifty percent. Lodging and hotels opened on June 5, as long as out-of-state residents sign a form confirming that they have quarentied for two weeks before entering NH. Attractions, including beaches, have opened and allow up to 25 percent capacity.
And in the last week alone, New Hampshire has seen 227 new coronavirus cases, according to the CDC.
The age group consisting of 20 to 29-year-olds has a contraction rate of 14.9 percent. The next highest rate is within the group of 50 to 59 with 16.8 percent, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS) recorded.
However, even though the age group between 20 and 29 accounts for one of the highest COVID-19 contraction rates, it has one of the lowest hospitalization rates, at 3.1 percent, according to the CDC. For ages 50 and up, the hospitalization rate is much higher, at an average of 13.25 percent.
Young adults should look at the spike in numbers for their age group contracting the coronavirus as a reminder that they are not immune to the virus, Dr. Jose Mercado, an epidemiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock said.
‘We have seen numbers constantly shift during this outbreak. Recent data has shown rising infection rates in the US in all age groups, most notably in younger adults,” Mercado said. “We should not assume that this is from expanded testing alone. It probably is, to some extent, a consequence of changes in behavior.”
Forty one percent of New Hampshire COVID-19 cases are spread through cluster-associated settings, the NH DHHS said, describing it as three or more cases within a work-place or facility.
Only 20 percent of coronavirus cases in New Hampshire are from contact with a person that has COVID-19.
“It must be emphasized that while age does play a part in an individual’s risk for complications, it does not have any impact on vulnerability to infection,” Mercado said. “We need to make conscientious decisions of what we are going to do to survive this pandemic and avoid overwhelming hospitals.”
Emma Eafrati, 22, an elementary music education teacher from Manchester said that most of her friends wear masks, but she still does notice that more young adults are the ones not wearing facial protection.
“I have seen some other groups of millennials in stores not wearing masks and also not social distancing, which makes me nervous as the state’s restrictions are opening up,” she said.
According to Strawbridge, who works at Kohls, the amount of people wearing masks at the store have been mixed — half of the amount of people that come to the store do not wear facial coverings.
“I feel like this stems from two factors -- an urge for freedom and self-entitlement,” he said. “Regarding the former, and numerous college students who have had their end-of-the-semester activities and graduation ‘stolen’ from them by the virus feel sick and tired of quarantining in their homes and are using their youth and more active immune systems as excuses to ignore masks and social distancing recommendations.”
Strawbridge said that the uncertainty of the pandemic has put his plans of applying for full-time jobs out-of-state on hold. He hopes more people comply with the restrictions so the pandemic can come somewhat to an end.
“For a group of people who want it [coronavirus] to go away or lessen its statistical impact, their hypocritical disregard of the threat in the real world makes that dream almost impossible.”
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