Promote good behavior, suggest small group hangouts, and push pizza with friends over house parties.
At the time of this writing, coronavirus is now the third leading cause of death in the US. This means the virus is killing more Americans than are things like motor vehicle accidents, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. People living in the US are now eight times more likely to die of the virus than those living in Europe and the numbers keep on climbing.
Not to lay blame, but part of the reason cases of COVID-19 keep going up in the US has to do with the fact that some young people are out in full force on beaches, and at house parties, congregating in large groups, spreading the virus around. Schools reopening in some states have also caused coronavirus cases to rise. In fact, opening up schools has had a dramatic impact on the number of cases of COVID-19 in kids. From mid-July to mid-August, cases in this group went up by 90%. This is bad news indeed. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), children carry the same or higher viral COVID-19 loads in their nasal passages compared with adults. And they can spread the novel coronavirus easily.
And so, it’s all bad news. An off-campus sorority house connected with Oklahoma State University is said to have been home to 23 coronavirus-infected sorority members, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has had to go back to online learning just one week after starting classes. Too many students were falling sick.
Related: 10 COVID-19 Back to School Safety Tips
How can we connect with young people, to get the message across that there is a pandemic going on?
Some have said that getting teens and twenty-somethings to stay home right now is like telling them to never have sex: it just doesn’t work. They won’t listen. Abstinence-only programs have failed. There are some avenues that could be more successful, however. Trying to get teens and young adults to #stayhome are unrealistic, and it even backfires. There are other approaches that could reduce the risk of young people spreading the virus. Here are some of them.
Promote Safer Hangouts
Annika Olson, assistant director of policy research at the University of Texas shared her opinions on reducing the spread of COVID-19 in young people with CNN. Instead of telling teens to stay home for what may seem to them like forever, Olson suggests we be realistic. They want to go out. They will make it happen one way or another. So let them go, but try to promote safer ways of hanging out. Help young people understand what social behaviors are safer than some others. Biking with just a few friends is preferable to hanging out on a crowded beach with thousands of strangers. So, suggest that. Spending time outdoors in smaller groups is also better. Getting takeout wins overeating at a busy restaurant or visiting a bar. Partying in the backyard with just two or three friends is better than attending that massive house party up the street. By promoting the middle road, we could see cases go down in young adults.
Related: COVID-19: Why Obese People Are Hit Harder
Use Peer Pressure for Good
People are posting entertainment ideas everywhere on social media related to the pandemic. When staying home becomes the norm and putting yourself at risk of contracting COVID-19 is frowned up by all, we can win. Instead of shaming teens who are swimming in crowded pools, we might focus on who is doing the right thing, and shout it out loud. A zoom dinner party at home? How cool is that?! Pandemic TikTok pranks at the dinner table? Bring it on! Again, it’s about promoting good behavior.
Share Personal Stories, Not Statistics
Generally speaking, the younger you are, the more invincible you may feel. The coronavirus only kills old people who are already sick, right? We might have more success connecting with teens over the pandemic if we turn to stories rather than statistics. Yes, percentages present cold hard facts. We use them often at Ratemds.com. But if your audience is younger than 30, you might stick to the anecdotes, because that might be what sticks with them.
It IS possible to get the viral curve to go down in the US. There are many people in the country, and many of them just need to take the right precautions like staying home, washing hands frequently, and wearing a mask.
photo credits: Vasyl Rohan/Shutterstock.com
