With a little more than 160,000 deaths and over 2 million confirmed cases worldwide due to COVID-19, as of April 19, one would expect that people would recognize the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic. 

But despite the overwhelming number of deaths and cases, it seems that many young adults still refuse to quarantine or follow various government-mandated shelter-in-place orders, which have been issued in states across the United States and in countries around the world.

Just four weeks ago, about 70 students from the University of Texas went on a trip to Mexico for spring break despite the coronavirus pandemic going on. After ignoring social-distancing guidelines, 44 of them have now tested positive for the virus. 

The most prominent reason a lot of the younger generation won’t remain at home is the false impression that they are not at risk for catching the deadly disease. The mortality rate for people 80 years and older is 14.8%, which is significantly higher than those under 50 who have less than a 0.4% death rate. But this statistic does not account for the fact that while younger people are more likely to recover from the illness, they will still suffer  if they get the virus, sometimes severely

Younger adults are also vectors for spreading the disease itself: If they catch the disease and come into contact with older family members such as their parents or grandparents, they put their loved ones at risk. 

In addition, when they disobey shelter-in-place laws, they burden our health-care workers and risk the lives of other hospital patients, doctors and nurses. They don’t consider the other lives that they are putting in danger and end up using up precious medical resources. 

Hospitals all around the country are already shutting down because of a shortage of supplies and with people not listening to shelter-in-place rules, they’re making the burden on our health infrastructure even worse. Current estimates of the number of ventilators in the U.S. range from 60,000 to 160,000 and there is still a lack of adequate personal protective equipment for frontline health-care workers.

Furthermore, the disease emerged only in the past few months. We still don’t fully know the long-term effects of the illness and still can’t fully comprehend its impact on contaminated people. Of course, while staying home with our families may not be the definition of fun, we must keep in mind that our sheltering in place is helping to end the pandemic earlier and indirectly saving the lives of millions of vulnerable elderly citizens.

Disobeying safety measures isn’t the only way we are putting the elderly at risk. One popular coping mechanism has been purchasing items in bulk to stay “prepared” so people won’t need to venture out of their houses during the quarantine, but bulk buying has depleted necessities, such as groceries, and a critical supply of medical-grade masks, leaving less for the people who most need it: the elderly. 

The elderly are more vulnerable to the coronavirus because they’re more likely to have previous medical conditions that could worsen the symptoms of the virus if they catch it.  They are also more likely to have isolation and mobility challenges, rendering them unable to get food that they need before stores are out of stock. 

At the end of the day, this pandemic is one of the most severe outbreaks many of us have seen. It’s all of our jobs to make sure that we stay safe and make this easier for everyone by maintaining distance with other people. It’s our duty to flatten the infection curve and stay mindful of the impacts of our actions on the more vulnerable people around us.