But like I have been saying now for a while, protect the old and let it rip through the young.
While a lower percentage of younger people apparently will suffer from severe symtoms, a large number of them still suffer and can die or be left with permanent damage, which is largely avoidable. Also, when infected, they become (directly or indirectly) contagious for older people. And these older people do not need to have preexisting conditions, just a reduced immune system will do. So letting it rip through the young, will also mean it will rip through others.
A potent virus, like SARS-Cov-2, in a population largely without protection from antibodies, will wreak havoc. That's what viruses do, they need living cells to replicate (so they try to not kill too many hosts, with varying degrees of success, because that reduces the effectiveness of spreading). In many countries around the world, now only about 4% of the population has (varying levels of) antibodies, and we even do not know for sure yet if that prevents all of them from getting COVID-19 again, or becoming contagious. So 'herd-immunity' is not something that's going to help for quite a while, and a second-wave is a given. A vaccine may not be available untill sometime next year. So we need to keep the spreading of the virus in check to avoid it becoming even worse than the first wave.
Our way of life will be changed for the years to come, jobs will be permanently lost, people need to take on different jobs, and some changes in work-practice (less travel, more teleconferencing, more local manufacturing, more focus on healthcare and prevention) may change for good. It will help to prepare for the next virus outbreak, and this pandemic is a rude wake-up call. So we better make good use of these hard lessons.
