March 18, 2020 • 10 mins
As whole countries go on lockdown and states and cities here in the U.S. shut down bars and restaurants, we are seeing a generational divide in some cases and the problem is carefree youth that could slow down the fight against the virus and endanger older people. There were various reports of “lockdown parties” in France and Belgium and college students continued some dorm parties. Some feel like the lockdowns are preventing the youth from living, but they are just efforts to mitigate the spread. Stacy Meuchtry, Paris Bureau Chief for the WSJ, joins us for how the youth are reacting and also how the lockdowns are playing out in France.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Wednesday, March eighteen. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily
Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily
coronavirus update. As whole countries go on lockdown, and states
and cities here in the US shut down bars and restaurants,
We're seeing a generational divide in some cases, and the
problem is carefree youth that could slow down the fight
(00:20):
against the virus and endanger older people. There were various
reports of lockdown parties in France and Belgium, and college
students continued some dorm parties. Some feel like the lockdowns
are preventing the youth from living, but they are just
efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID nineteen. Stacy Mike Tree,
Paris bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, joins us
(00:41):
for how the youth are reacting and also how the
lockdowns are playing out in France. Thanks for joining us, Stacey,
it's great to be here. I wanted to talk continue
to talk about coronavirus, COVID nineteen and the big generational
war that's kind of brewing over this. We all know
that older people are more susceptible to this, and UH
(01:02):
could get more severe symptoms than young people. And what's
being played out over the world really is kind of interesting. Uh.
You know for young people obviously, we know a lot
of times you feel invincible when you're young, all this,
and sometimes they're not heeding the warnings from officials about
you know, practicing social distancing and all this. And we're
(01:25):
seeing all over the place, Uh, people still going to
bars and restaurants, going to clubs, still parting, kind of
refusing to give into this. They don't want to be
shut down. Uh. Stacy, tell us a little bit about
how this is playing out. Yeah, Well, I think the
first problem is that young people are really focused on
the mortality rates, right. Um. You know, the number that's
(01:46):
been circulating is two um, which you know is is
high in my opinion, um, compared to the flu um.
But nevertheless, um, young people look at two percent and
they think, okay, I like those odds, UM. And you
know the problem is that they don't quite realize that
a lot of young people are ending up in hospitals.
And I see us in fact that Um. You know,
(02:08):
the the chief of the Paris hospital system only yesterday
said that when he walked into the to the emergency rooms.
He was just completely stunned by how many young people
there were. Um, you know, about half of them were
under sixty. So, UM, this isn't a virus that in
any way UM discriminates against young people. Uh, it's just
that young people aren't the ones who are are dying. UM.
(02:31):
So that's the first piece of it. UM. The second
pieces that you know, when young people make this sort
of calculation that they're going to go out there and
and take their chances, UM, there's this feeling that a
lot of the measures that are being put in place,
UM disproportionately penalizes young people, right, because the thinking is that,
(02:52):
you know, it's it's young people who want to be
out and about. It's young people whom want to be dating, partying, socializing,
and so when you're closing down bars and closing down
restaurants and canceling concerts, it's sort of young people who
are paying the generational price um for their elders. Right. UM. Now,
keep in mind, there are a lot of young people
out there who are doing responsible stuff, who are saying,
(03:15):
who are who are deciding to you know, to stay
home and to you know, protect their parents and their grandparents.
So that doesn't apply to everybody, um, you know, but
there are people out there, young young people out on
the streets of Paris. The other night, you know, it
was it was a Saturday night when the Prime Minister
announced that he was closing down all the bars and restaurants. Um.
(03:36):
And he said it in pretty dire terms. Uh And
and the response from a lot of young people was
to pour into all the bars and have a last
drink before the stroke of midnight when things shut down. Yeah,
you're right, exactly. We're talking about extreme cases in here.
I think for the most part, people are heeding the
warnings because people want to get it under control. But yeah,
these you know, so called lockdown parties things like that,
(03:59):
they become a problem. Young people contract the virus at
the same rates as everybody else does. Uh. And a
lot of times they are asymptomatic or having mild symptoms,
and you know, they can just pass it on very
easily to other people. And you were talking about the
mortality rates. You know, Italy is one of those worst
hit countries right now. They have for patients, uh, from
(04:20):
zero to twenty nine that's a zero percent mortality rate,
and people that are over ninety that's like, so, you're right,
I think that might be a piece that young people
are saying. It's like, well, we're not dying from this,
there's no problem. Um. In in France there in pairs.
What what are they doing when they find people that
(04:41):
are violating UM these lockdown orders? The lockdown, the full
national lockdown in which they barred people from leaving their
homes that only started today at noon. Right over the
weekend they closed down the bars and the restaurants and
all the gathering points, right and so um, so up
until now there hasn't really been strict enforcement of any kind. Right.
(05:03):
And you'll you'll you'll find young people out on the
streets in the parks, gathering, drinking, and when you talk
to them again, they're thinking, is well, I live in
the center of Paris, I don't come into contact with
elderly people, so I'm not a risk factor. And they're
not thinking about the people that the other young people
they're transmitting it to who are in contact with elderly people. Right. Um.
(05:28):
You know, since since they did the full scale lockdown UM,
the rule is that if you're caught out on the streets,
you're subject to a one thirty five year Oh fine,
Um I have uh you know, before I was Paris
correspondent here, I was based in Italy, and um, I
have a lot of contacts still there. And and and
one Italian student who I talked to in you know,
(05:53):
north northwestern Italy and the Piedmont region. Um, you know,
she she told me that she'd been under lockdown, you know,
not allowed to come out of our house for for days. Right.
And when you're in this situation all by yourself, and
you have this choice of Okay, I either go home
to my parents or I try to stick it out alone.
(06:14):
And that decision, by the way, has to be made
before the lockdown, right, So it's a tough one. So
a lot of these students are suddenly finding themselves all
by themselves for for days on end, right, And keep
in mind, this quarantine, it's going to stretch for weeks.
So at some point you start to break down, right,
And and and one of the students I talked to
told me that she was feeling depressed, and so she
(06:35):
decided to sneak out of her apartment. There was a
friend of hers who is studying at the same school,
who was having a dinner party, not some raging kegger,
but just you know, a dinner party of line and whatever.
Um shooting over there. They thought they were, you know,
keeping a low profile. There was only five people around
the dinner table, and and the cops came and knocked
(06:57):
on the door. Apparently you know, the neighbors reported them. Uh.
The cops came in, marched them downstairs. Um, it took
all their personal information, UM, cell phone numbers, and told
them that they're opening up a file on them and
that they're subject to uh in Italy. I think it's
a two hundred and five year oh fine, And and
(07:17):
according to the to the student, they were told that
they could face jail time. So I mean that's pretty significant.
It's pretty scary. And the people at the party were, um,
we're really well, they were freaked out. Yeah, I mean
it's very tough in these situations. Humans, most of all,
most of us by nature, are social creatures and we
want to be out with other people. Yeah, definitely, the
isolation part of this is very tough to handle. The
(07:40):
last question I have Stacy is um, just overall, obviously
there is a national lockdown now there in France, but
how how how has it been going, um, you know
with uh uh confirmed cases and all that. Well. Um,
the problem in France, and it's a problem that you've
in the United States as well, is that there simply
(08:03):
aren't that they're not testing widely, right and so UM,
any of the numbers that you see out there regarding um,
the number of infections in France is really a reflection
of patients who were in such bad conditions that they
needed tests and that they're simply just trying to confirm
if it's coronavirus. Right. So these are people who are
(08:25):
being hospitalized. So if you look at you know, frances
numbers this week, I mean, you know, we're between six
and seven thousand, right, um, confirmed infections. UM. You know
the deaths are now hundred and fifty or so. I
mean these are you know, the numbers are starting to
get big, and the larger they get, um, the faster
(08:45):
it accelerates, right, because this is exponential growth. It's every
like two or three days at doubles. So you know,
over the weekend for Spain and Italy, I mean they
saw Spain in Italy all by themselves from Saturday Sunday
they saw five deaths. Um. You know this thing is
really catching countries flat footed. Broader testing is like absolutely vital. Here.
(09:07):
The challenges that as you start to test more broadly,
you're going to find more people who are infected, right,
And when you find more infections, it brings the mortality
raped down. So it has the adverse effect of in
some way persuading people that this thing is less deadly.
But I don't think finding finding out that it's more
(09:29):
infectious would would would indicate that there's any sort of
lower risk or um, you know, that your chances of
survival or are any better. So, yeah, they need to
start testing more broadly, but we also need to sort
of keep in mind that whatever numbers come out of
those new tests shouldn't necessarily reassure us. Stacy Mike Tree,
(09:49):
Paris bureau Cheaper, The Wall Street Journal. Thank you very
much for joining us. Thank you. This has been your
daily coronavirus update. Don't forget effort today's big news stories.
You can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast
every Monday through Friday. Follow us on I Heart Radio,
or wherever you get your podcast
It's Wednesday, March eighteen. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily
Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily
coronavirus update. As whole countries go on lockdown, and states
and cities here in the US shut down bars and restaurants,
We're seeing a generational divide in some cases, and the
problem is carefree youth that could slow down the fight
(00:20):
against the virus and endanger older people. There were various
reports of lockdown parties in France and Belgium, and college
students continued some dorm parties. Some feel like the lockdowns
are preventing the youth from living, but they are just
efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID nineteen. Stacy Mike Tree,
Paris bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, joins us
(00:41):
for how the youth are reacting and also how the
lockdowns are playing out in France. Thanks for joining us, Stacey,
it's great to be here. I wanted to talk continue
to talk about coronavirus, COVID nineteen and the big generational
war that's kind of brewing over this. We all know
that older people are more susceptible to this, and UH
(01:02):
could get more severe symptoms than young people. And what's
being played out over the world really is kind of interesting. Uh.
You know for young people obviously, we know a lot
of times you feel invincible when you're young, all this,
and sometimes they're not heeding the warnings from officials about
you know, practicing social distancing and all this. And we're
(01:25):
seeing all over the place, Uh, people still going to
bars and restaurants, going to clubs, still parting, kind of
refusing to give into this. They don't want to be
shut down. Uh. Stacy, tell us a little bit about
how this is playing out. Yeah, Well, I think the
first problem is that young people are really focused on
the mortality rates, right. Um. You know, the number that's
(01:46):
been circulating is two um, which you know is is
high in my opinion, um, compared to the flu um.
But nevertheless, um, young people look at two percent and
they think, okay, I like those odds, UM. And you
know the problem is that they don't quite realize that
a lot of young people are ending up in hospitals.
And I see us in fact that Um. You know,
(02:08):
the the chief of the Paris hospital system only yesterday
said that when he walked into the to the emergency rooms.
He was just completely stunned by how many young people
there were. Um, you know, about half of them were
under sixty. So, UM, this isn't a virus that in
any way UM discriminates against young people. Uh, it's just
that young people aren't the ones who are are dying. UM.
(02:31):
So that's the first piece of it. UM. The second
pieces that you know, when young people make this sort
of calculation that they're going to go out there and
and take their chances, UM, there's this feeling that a
lot of the measures that are being put in place,
UM disproportionately penalizes young people, right, because the thinking is that,
(02:52):
you know, it's it's young people who want to be
out and about. It's young people whom want to be dating, partying, socializing,
and so when you're closing down bars and closing down
restaurants and canceling concerts, it's sort of young people who
are paying the generational price um for their elders. Right. UM. Now,
keep in mind, there are a lot of young people
out there who are doing responsible stuff, who are saying,
(03:15):
who are who are deciding to you know, to stay
home and to you know, protect their parents and their grandparents.
So that doesn't apply to everybody, um, you know, but
there are people out there, young young people out on
the streets of Paris. The other night, you know, it
was it was a Saturday night when the Prime Minister
announced that he was closing down all the bars and restaurants. Um.
(03:36):
And he said it in pretty dire terms. Uh And
and the response from a lot of young people was
to pour into all the bars and have a last
drink before the stroke of midnight when things shut down. Yeah,
you're right, exactly. We're talking about extreme cases in here.
I think for the most part, people are heeding the
warnings because people want to get it under control. But yeah,
these you know, so called lockdown parties things like that,
(03:59):
they become a problem. Young people contract the virus at
the same rates as everybody else does. Uh. And a
lot of times they are asymptomatic or having mild symptoms,
and you know, they can just pass it on very
easily to other people. And you were talking about the
mortality rates. You know, Italy is one of those worst
hit countries right now. They have for patients, uh, from
(04:20):
zero to twenty nine that's a zero percent mortality rate,
and people that are over ninety that's like, so, you're right,
I think that might be a piece that young people
are saying. It's like, well, we're not dying from this,
there's no problem. Um. In in France there in pairs.
What what are they doing when they find people that
(04:41):
are violating UM these lockdown orders? The lockdown, the full
national lockdown in which they barred people from leaving their
homes that only started today at noon. Right over the
weekend they closed down the bars and the restaurants and
all the gathering points, right and so um, so up
until now there hasn't really been strict enforcement of any kind. Right.
(05:03):
And you'll you'll you'll find young people out on the
streets in the parks, gathering, drinking, and when you talk
to them again, they're thinking, is well, I live in
the center of Paris, I don't come into contact with
elderly people, so I'm not a risk factor. And they're
not thinking about the people that the other young people
they're transmitting it to who are in contact with elderly people. Right. Um.
(05:28):
You know, since since they did the full scale lockdown UM,
the rule is that if you're caught out on the streets,
you're subject to a one thirty five year Oh fine,
Um I have uh you know, before I was Paris
correspondent here, I was based in Italy, and um, I
have a lot of contacts still there. And and and
one Italian student who I talked to in you know,
(05:53):
north northwestern Italy and the Piedmont region. Um, you know,
she she told me that she'd been under lockdown, you know,
not allowed to come out of our house for for days. Right.
And when you're in this situation all by yourself, and
you have this choice of Okay, I either go home
to my parents or I try to stick it out alone.
(06:14):
And that decision, by the way, has to be made
before the lockdown, right, So it's a tough one. So
a lot of these students are suddenly finding themselves all
by themselves for for days on end, right, And keep
in mind, this quarantine, it's going to stretch for weeks.
So at some point you start to break down, right,
And and and one of the students I talked to
told me that she was feeling depressed, and so she
(06:35):
decided to sneak out of her apartment. There was a
friend of hers who is studying at the same school,
who was having a dinner party, not some raging kegger,
but just you know, a dinner party of line and whatever.
Um shooting over there. They thought they were, you know,
keeping a low profile. There was only five people around
the dinner table, and and the cops came and knocked
(06:57):
on the door. Apparently you know, the neighbors reported them. Uh.
The cops came in, marched them downstairs. Um, it took
all their personal information, UM, cell phone numbers, and told
them that they're opening up a file on them and
that they're subject to uh in Italy. I think it's
a two hundred and five year oh fine, And and
(07:17):
according to the to the student, they were told that
they could face jail time. So I mean that's pretty significant.
It's pretty scary. And the people at the party were, um,
we're really well, they were freaked out. Yeah, I mean
it's very tough in these situations. Humans, most of all,
most of us by nature, are social creatures and we
want to be out with other people. Yeah, definitely, the
isolation part of this is very tough to handle. The
(07:40):
last question I have Stacy is um, just overall, obviously
there is a national lockdown now there in France, but
how how how has it been going, um, you know
with uh uh confirmed cases and all that. Well. Um,
the problem in France, and it's a problem that you've
in the United States as well, is that there simply
(08:03):
aren't that they're not testing widely, right and so UM,
any of the numbers that you see out there regarding um,
the number of infections in France is really a reflection
of patients who were in such bad conditions that they
needed tests and that they're simply just trying to confirm
if it's coronavirus. Right. So these are people who are
(08:25):
being hospitalized. So if you look at you know, frances
numbers this week, I mean, you know, we're between six
and seven thousand, right, um, confirmed infections. UM. You know
the deaths are now hundred and fifty or so. I
mean these are you know, the numbers are starting to
get big, and the larger they get, um, the faster
(08:45):
it accelerates, right, because this is exponential growth. It's every
like two or three days at doubles. So you know,
over the weekend for Spain and Italy, I mean they
saw Spain in Italy all by themselves from Saturday Sunday
they saw five deaths. Um. You know this thing is
really catching countries flat footed. Broader testing is like absolutely vital. Here.
(09:07):
The challenges that as you start to test more broadly,
you're going to find more people who are infected, right,
And when you find more infections, it brings the mortality
raped down. So it has the adverse effect of in
some way persuading people that this thing is less deadly.
But I don't think finding finding out that it's more
(09:29):
infectious would would would indicate that there's any sort of
lower risk or um, you know, that your chances of
survival or are any better. So, yeah, they need to
start testing more broadly, but we also need to sort
of keep in mind that whatever numbers come out of
those new tests shouldn't necessarily reassure us. Stacy Mike Tree,
(09:49):
Paris bureau Cheaper, The Wall Street Journal. Thank you very
much for joining us. Thank you. This has been your
daily coronavirus update. Don't forget effort today's big news stories.
You can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast
every Monday through Friday. Follow us on I Heart Radio,
or wherever you get your podcast
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