Risk averse vulnerables and those who shield them

Last update: Saturday 7/9/22 

This note calls our readers' attention to a recent article (whose link was provided by Reddit) that discusses the mental stress suffered by risk averse vulnerable persons -- e.g., elderly, immunocompromised, diabetics -- who continue to maintain high levels of mediation during our current transition to "normal living". Of particular importance is the finding from the author's research that persons responsible for "shielding" the vulnerable -- e.g., their  spouses, adult children, guardians -- may suffer more stress than the vulnerable persons they are protecting. 

The editor of this blog was puzzled by the author's de facto assumption that being risk averse at this time was a questionable posture ... until he realized that the author's research was conducted in the United Kingdom, whose National Health Service has provide far more competent guidance to the UK's efforts to cope with the coronavirus than has our CDC. Indeed, the pandemic was taken far more seriously in the UK than in the U.S., a fact that is evidenced by this week's forced resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in part because of his personal disregard for pandemic restrictions on social gatherings. Nevertheless, the article's main points provide useful cautions to American readers who remain risk averse, e.g., the editor of this blog. They remind us that everything has a cost, including our risk aversion.

• "Many people are still shielding from COVID – and our research suggests their mental health is getting worse", Jo Daniels, The Conversation, 7/6/22 *** 

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