Global Save the Boomers Week
March 16 - March 22, 2020
We’re two months into Coronavirus mania. You’ve stocked up on your quinoa and toilet paper and are wondering what to do next. I’m here to tell you it’s time to band together to Save the Boomers & Save the World.
Wait, what? I'm not afraid of the Coronavirus.
Directly, the new Coronavirus probably means little to you. You probably won’t die, and if you’re under 60 and have no underlying medical issues, you’re not likely to end up in the ICU on a respirator.
But what about your parents? Are you ready to lose one in ten people over 70? Will there be enough respirators if one in six Boomers need to be hospitalized?
Covid-19 is more than a health crisis: it is a global economic crisis that can decimate emerging markets.
More businesses owners will go bankrupt than people will die. At least for now. Across emerging markets, where as many as one in five people directly or indirectly rely on tourism, Covid-19 is going to lead to economic collapse if we let the situation fester.
The last two months have already been challenging on Asian tourism destinations’ economies, and it was mostly just due to a loss of Chinese tourists. Local businesses here are already starting to go under. Now imagine keeping global borders closed for months at a time and losing all tourists.
We’re talking about the total collapse of an $8.8 trillion dollar industry. The tourism sector supports 319 million jobs – more than the entire workforce of the United States.
Most small businesses don’t have the capital to survive more than two months without revenue. If we as a global community don’t do something drastic, local bars, hotels and restaurants around the world will go out of business. Millions of families will lose their livelihoods. Only the largest businesses will have the capital to continue, and they’re likely to retrench most of their service staff anyway.
It's time to change your perspective on the Coronavirus. It's not about us.
How we approach the virus is no longer about whether you or I will get sick. It’s about whether we’re going to get our parents sick. Because if our parents get sick, then not only are they the most fragile cases, but the world stays on lockdown. And if the world stays locked down, then millions will starve.
In other words, if we can save the Boomers, we can save the world.
How do we save the Boomers? Starting from today, let’s adopt the mindset of someone who believes they are already sick. If you look at the numbers, there’s a non-negligible chance that you’re already sick and asymptomatic anyway. Concretely speaking, instead of sanitizing your hands after touching the door handle, you need to sanitize the door handle for the next person. Instead of avoiding restaurants because you’re afraid of getting germs, consider if you risk getting the servers sick.
Once again: you and I are probably going to be fine. But our parents might not be. And if our parents get sick, the whole world suffers.
When – not if, but when – your city goes on lockdown, I implore you to please stay in the city. Don’t take your germs to the countryside where there are lots of elderly and few hospitals. Go to the store on your parents’ behalf. Do everything you can to minimize their exposure.
But… there’s an easier, simpler, solution.
If everyone non-critical in the world stays home for 2 weeks, we can seriously curb this virus and give our medical staff valuable time to catch up.
That’s why I’m proposing…
International Save the Boomers Week
This March 16, let’s launch the International Save the Boomers Week.
How to participate?
For the next week, stay home as much as possible and don’t touch anything that someone else might touch. Post your tips with the hashtag #savetheboomers.
Share with your friends & family. And once this is behind us, let’s ask the Boomers to also prioritise our future by voting for clean air, public transport, and health coverage.
Remember: Save the Boomers, Save the World.