Is it going to take one big celebrity death for people to take COVID-19 seriously?

No. People care a lot less about celebrities in this pandemic.
What it will take is a death in the family.

Seriously enough to do what?

@lucillelucillelucille not going to the beach, not being in groups of 10 or more, not idly walking through stores, etc.

Young family members on vents in the hospital who can’t have any visitors would start to drive it home I think.

I just saw a video done by a NY ICU doctor in a C19 hospital and he said that ages 0–14 seem to not get short of breath from the disease, but older than that every age is at risk. He has all ages on vents. 20,30,40…year olds. The younger people do recover most of the time and are taken off the vent after about a week. All ages above 14 in fairly equal ratios and no underlying conditions in the majority of the patients.

I personally do not know anyone who does that nor have I witnessed it myself.

I do think it needs to hit more personally for those people. Even some of the more reasonable, compassionate people I know think this is blown out of proportion and don’t understand why people are being so cautious. It’s kind of bizarre, because it’s hard for me to imagine NOT taking it seriously.

Also, as numbers rise people seem to get more serious about it where I live. I have friends who were in denial (that’s what I’ll call it) who started to come around in the last few days, and I think it’s because Florida numbers are escalating fast now.

Also, if it affected some Fox News family members in a serious way (I don’t wish that on anybody) more than one, it can’t be a one off, it would need to be a few having a college kid on a vent, a 35 year old father and husband, etc., a lot of the population might turn who take in Fox News all day long. Meghan McCain said people who watch Fox, watch it an average of 8 hours a day.

This question is about a week too late. I see people taking it much more seriously, it has hit home in the last week.

That kid who was in Florida two weeks ago saying, “if I get it, I get it, not going to stop partying” has issues apologies for being a jerk.

I’ve heard of some famous people that have it (none deceased as of yet) and some people that are coworkers of friends or acquaintances of friends that have it, but none seriously.

My employer is local government so you might say I have thousands of coworkers, and there are a few that have it but none that I know well.

I am taking it seriously but I feel it would really hit home if someone I know got sick and died from it. Of course, I hope that doesn’t happen, but it’s a possibility.

Here, there was something on the news about a house party in NJ with over 50 people and a DJ. The house party got broken up and the owner or renter was issued a citation.

A friend lives in a Westchester city about a half hour from me and on the past few Saturday nights, including last night, she told me the people downstairs (two family house) have been having parties. I told my friend that ignorance is bliss because the renters are obviously ignorant.

Much mirth and merriment in the midst of a pandemic.

In my area, most people are taking it seriously. It may depend on how close you are to the more densely populated areas which are hot spots. I hate to say it but it also seems to be a red state/blue state dichotomy.

Anyone so shallow it takes the death of someone famous to take this “seriously” needs to take a look at their IQ…no life is more meaningful than another.

@ucme -Well said.

Won’t take a death of a big celebrity for some people to start taking it seriously, those who care about and has close contacts with higher risk people like their own parents and grandparents.

Where I live most people are over 60, and some of them are saying they want business to go back as usual for the “young” because they don’t want their grandchildren living through a depression. They are at risk themselves, being an older citizen, but they still opt for their grandchildren. Personally, I think if we were not such a greedy culture buying so much on credit, which inflates prices, and if we prepared financially at the micro and macro level better for disasters then we would not have such an economic concern, but that’s drifting to another topic.

I think these people I know who are saying they want life to go back to normal and let the virus work it’s way through the population, I think if we started to lose lots of people where I live they might finally think twice also. For sure if their child or grandchild died, but even lots of their friends dying too. My community is 130,000 people, lets say only 60,000 get it, that would be on the low side 6,000 hospitalized, and 600 dead. That’s rounding down, it could be double. 600 is huge, especially since it would happen in less than a year. 1 to 2 people dying daily just in my city from it. It would likely happen in clusters too. She wasn’t suggesting we go back to our usual deal here, she still though we should distance and take some precautions, but a portion of people would be very lax. Plus, we interact with younger people at restaurants, grocery stores, and if they are infected at higher rates it will effect all of us.

It’s going to take the administration to stop saying well this has been fun but we need to get back to work by Easter.
Or work on plans to help big business and freak over states wanting thousands of ventilators.
The states do need like some anchor from Fox news to get it, or even ole orange hair himself for the non believers to finally clue in and get with it.

@SQUEEKY2: I really believe that if the Orange One got it, he wouldn’t broadcast it unless he ended up in the hospital. I think he would fear how it would affect the election and he would fear the bad publicity from it.

@jca2
There is a good chance he already got it, and had his doctor lie about the test results.

IF he had it, it would NEVER be announced to the general public until he was dead. That’s a no-no in DC. There are just some things that the public doesn’t “need to know” until there is NO other alternative!!!

Somebody dying doesn’t magically make a stupid person smart.

If it is a person that stupid people believe, well at least it makes believers out of them.

@SQUEEKY2, not if they can think of another reason. Such as God punishing them for not trusting Donald Trump enough.

@SQUEEKY2 too many are of the opinion, “It won’t happen to me”.

Alright ,alright I guess you’re right there really is no sure way to get through to stupid people.

I don’t have an answer but I wanted to add something. People are coming from other states to their summer vacation homes in Wisconsin. These homes are in small towns with mostly elderly populations.

https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Door-County-asking-outsiders-to-stay-home--569193781.html

@Jonsblond They’re doing that here too but I can’t really fault people for wanting to get their kids out of the cities.

Strange that you ask this today. It was announced today that Joe Diffie died at the age of 61 of the Ccoronavirus. He had announced 2 days ago that he had tested positive and he died this morning. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Diffie. He was considered a major country music star back in the 90’s and a member of the Grand Ole Opry. It didn’t take his death to wake me up as I’ve been self-isolating from the beginning

Terence McNally who is quite a famous playwright died a few days ago.

@janbb I’ll bet, like us up here, you are getting the refugees from NYC, heading to the shores where they have summer places, or renting where they can feel safer.

I think once test kits, are widely available, and we see a more accurate number of infected, that’ll change some minds.

I agree with some points above, about people. There is a saying.
“YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID”
I agree…

But you can adjust it with a big enough hammer @MrGrimm888 .

^Well. I hate stupid people….

But. I don’t want them to suffer, and die…

No doubt that the CV-19, will cull the heard a bit though. But. All walks of life, will be impacted by this.

That wouldn’t help much. There are too many people who don’t watch or read the news to know such stuff.

It has already happened. I heard news about some Iranian politician dying of the virus long before it became a thing in the US. And just recently a Spanish princess just died from the virus. I’m surprised the US didn’t take the virus seriously before, but that could just be me.

I was about to ask a question about how the US jellies are holding out, and I’m glad that some places are taking it seriously. I hope the US will contain the virus soon, because these days whenever I turn on the TV it’s always about the US’s death toll and it worries me…

@Mimishu1995 The US SHOULD have taken things seriously before. Our idiot in chief should have declared a state of emergency many moons ago. I am glad I live in a state whose governor took this shit serious enough to declare a “shelter in place” . There are still many states that have not.

The list of famous and not so famous getting sick and dying continues to grow, and probably will increase over the next few weeks.

John Prine, folksingiing conscience of a generation, is in the hospital.
Joe Diffie, grammy award winning country music star died Sunday.
The songwriter who wrote “I Love Rock’n’Roll” died yesterday.

IMHO most people are taking this seriously.

Well, apparently there are several famous celebrities who I’ve never heard of who have died from covid 19. Yes. @zenvelo listed them.

Adam Schlesinger of Fountain of Wings died this morning from the virus. He was only 52 years old.