Young men are target of new $475,000 COVID campaign. Spend it wisely, Pierce County

As public health professionals continue to play whack-a-mole against the COVID-19 virus, they’re spending a lot of money trying to tamp down transmission in one key demographic that seems largely resistant to the hammering.

Here’s looking at you, young men of Pierce County — primarily teens and 20-somethings.

What constitutes a lot of money? In our ledger, a half million dollars certainly qualifies.

Elected leaders recently approved a $475,000 request from Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department communications staff for a multi-media TPCHD marketing campaign to promote coronavirus testing. It will focus on two groups: young men aged 18-24, and mothers of 10- to 19-year-olds (because a mom’s nudge to get swabbed is hard to ignore).

“The campaign will use our messaging frames of humor, compassion and personal responsibility to reduce the stigma of testing and help young people overcome barriers in their thinking,” according to the request application.

We understand why TPCHD would zero in on young men, given their propensity for risky behavior and disinclination to get preventive health screenings. It’s not just about COVID; young Pierce County males also have higher smoking, vaping and binge-drinking rates and have been targeted in past public health outreach efforts.

A half-million dollars is a relative sliver of Pierce County’s $158 million in federal CARES Act funding, which officials are racing to spend before the end of the year. But it’s always fair to question how public money is allocated.

It’s also fair to ask at what point health officials will have squeezed all they can out of targeted appeals to millennials and Generation Z’ers. TPCHD already developed a robust social media campaign with hashtags (#MaskUpPierceCounty), colorful visual messaging and clever slogans (“Practice Safe Six,” “Say It. Don’t Spray It,” “WTF, Wear The Face mask,” to name a few).

What’s beyond question is that young adults are the group most critical to stopping COVID’s scary vertical trajectory this fall and winter. When Gov. Jay Inslee imposed new shutdowns this week, it wasn’t lost on us that many affected venues — bars, restaurants, fitness clubs — are popular hangouts for young people; they’re also places where they share air with older folks.

Pierce County residents in the 20-39 age range comprise 27 percent of the population but represent 40 percent of COVID cases. As for teens, the health department doesn’t break them out from the 0-19 age group, but we’re not surprised this demographic has had the fastest-growing infection rate in recent weeks.

Meantime, the virus doesn’t prey on young people the way it does their elders. Those under age 40 represent a fraction of COVID-related hospitalizations and less than two percent of local deaths.

As legendary TV newsman Andy Rooney once said: “Death is a distant rumor to the young.” Not nearly so distant, of course, to their grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and teachers —a message that must be reinforced regularly in the most personal terms possible.

But there’s another point to keep in mind as public health experts try to reach young people, and as the rest of us do our part. Don’t forget that much of their exposure is by necessity, not choice.

Just as generations of youth have carried out the dirty work of our foreign wars, young people now dominate the front lines of this domestic pandemic: grocery stores, retail shops, warehouses, restaurant kitchens and coffee-shop drive-through windows.

Nearly half of the 19.3 million American workers age 16 to 24 are employed in service economy jobs, according to Pew Research Center, which puts them at high risk of either pandemic layoff or COVID infection. They can’t hunker down in remote workplaces to avoid the virus. And in many cases they have no health insurance if they do get sick.

Perhaps TPCHD officials should spend some of that $475,000 to develop messaging around this reality.

Thank you, young people of Pierce County, for all you’re doing to hold society together during the plague of 2020. We appreciate your hard work, energy and optimism.

Now please, go get tested.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 1:00 PM.