30-Year Old, Believing Pandemic a Hoax, Attends “COVID Party,” Dies–What To Make of This?

There are a few possible reactions to this, two of which are as follows:

1) Stupid people are constantly killing themselves, and there’s nothing you or I or anyone can do about that.  This is natural selection at work; it’s how species evolve.  Letting this upset us is like crying over the disappearance of slow gazelles.

2) When the president of a nation deliberately spreads self-serving lies that leave people dead by rendering them incapable of taking care of themselves, he commits many counts of involuntary manslaughter.  In a just world, the perpetrator would be charged with the crimes, and if convicted, punished appropriately. All decent people very much hope that this is the case here.

Whether we favor the first or the second analysis, we have to read the patient’s last words with pity.  “I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.”