By all means, think of yourself

Whenever I see motorists who refuse to pull over for a fire truck or an ambulance or a police car -- because they're on the way to someplace themselves and they don't want to be inconvenienced by any delay -- I always think the same thing: if all you care about is yourself, then do that. Think of yourself. Maybe it's your house on fire. Maybe your kid was struck by a delivery truck. Maybe someone just robbed the gas station where your spouse was filling up and now has them hostage. You don't know it's not in your interest to make way for the emergency vehicle. Pretend it is, and you'll have no regrets later if you find out you were right.

Same thing with COVID-19. Sure, maybe for whatever reason you're not at risk. Maybe you work from home anyway and don't interact with many people on a daily basis. Maybe because of that you assume that when you are out in public, precautions aren't meant for you. Only those at risk need wash their hands, or keep this distance, or take care who or what they touch. You're in the clear. And you were in the mood for a hockey game. Stupid closures and cancellations. 

To which I say: by all means, think of yourself. Maybe tomorrow you'll eat some bad sushi or not cook your chicken stirfry as long as you should have, and will spend the next week on the toilet praying for death until you can take it no longer and head to the hospital. Maybe you're right as rain - right up until the moment your car slides on a patch of newly fallen snow and you slam headfirst into a city transit bus. Or may someone you care about will have just a run of the mill heart attack.

You think just because your issue isn't COVID-19, there will be reserve doctors, nurses, and resources to help you? Like out of the 25 possible hospital staff on a shift, five will be twiddling their thumbs until a non-COVID-19 case appears? You think they'll get you right in?

We have a finite supply of resources, people. If we get to a place where triage is a necessity, it ain't just gonna be COVID-19 sufferers we're triaging. So give medical staff and resources a break. Follow the precautions. Don't strain finite resources by creating cases or becoming one yourself.

We actually will never know if the precautions and closures and cancellations were an overreaction. If we manage to slow the progression of the disease and our health facilities never reach their breaking point, we will never know if it was because of the actions we took in the coming days or because the outbreak was never going to overwhelm us in the first place. Personally, I'd rather live with that uncertainty rather than regret that the time to act passed while we waited.

And, before I leave you, I just have to send a special shout out to the Millenials I've personally heard complaining that they are being blamed for endangering people by not staying home from work. Apparently the argument being made is that they don't care who they put at risk because they themselves are not at risk - but they counter that if they could make rent if they stayed home they would, but they can't so there's nothing they can do. Give me a break. Just because you can't stay home from work doesn't mean you can't do anything. Staying home is one option. Double down on the other options available to you to help protect people who can't protect themselves. 

(You're the people who terrified me when I had to go through chemo during the flu season two years ago.)

Kids, the way to shake that whiner reputation is to quit whining. Every generation blames the generation before for ruining everything. And every generation blames the one that came afterwards for being flippant and disrespectful of "the way things were." Every generation. You're the only ones who can't seem to get over it.  Get over it.

And if you can't, create a Go Fund Me page to build a new hospital wing just for yourselves so you can self-soothe your hurt feelings, bruised egos, and inconvenienced lives. Maybe it'll be built next to the wing for COVID-19 sufferers so you'll be able to see firsthand what actual problems are.