Young people were unfairly targeted

My name is Derek Lush. I’m a 22year-old student at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the target of Boulder County’s craven attempt to shift blame for a coronavirus outbreak away from itself by scapegoating students who support Boulder’s economy and property values, but are otherwise simple pests in the eyes of local government.

Official Boulder County data show the rate of COVID-19 related hospitalizations has remained largely consistent since June, with 13 people currently hospitalized. This indicates that the outbreak among students is not currently spreading to higherrisk people, and thus that the public health justification for a draconian and openly discriminatory order stands on pillars of sand.

Perhaps more importantly, official data show the overwhelming majority of new case incidence is among 18- and 19-yearolds. Data is not given on the 20 to 22 age group (an inconceivable data reporting error, absent political motivations), but adding these to the 18 to 19 group causes new cases to fall by more than 50 percent, indicating the difference between the two groups is enormous.

Have upperclassmen been behaving dramatically different from underclassmen? No. So what accounts for this difference?

Eighteen-year-olds are generally required by CU to live in extremely close quarters in dorms. Nineteen-year-olds are not required, but disproportionately live in the close quarters of Greek houses and the small student apartments surrounding campus.

The county and university knew this, but required 31,000-plus students to return with in-person classes, only to cancel once tuition had been paid and leases became binding.

Officially, students’ social activities are responsible for the outbreak, and they obviously haven’t helped. But the age distribution of cases indicates this is far from the primary explanation.

This fact, combined with the complete lack of a spike in serious coronavirus cases, leads to the inescapable conclusion that public health was not the true motivation for this order.

DEREK LUSH Denver