[nudephil (OP)]

Here's a question from listener Judith:

My father is 92. He did his national service in Germany in the 50s; he chose to be sent there, despite being from a British Jewish family, which you might have thought would have put him off Germany. He is from a stoical generation. He rarely feels any pain, emotional or physical. He has been a university lecturer and now teaches history on Zoom to adults. I do not ever remember him being ill in bed for any reason and I have lived with him most of my life, for various reasons. I believe that his experiences of growing up in the Blitz and then moving away to Glasgow as a 12 year old both traumatized him, of course, but left him immune to much of the pain and suffering.

Do you think that the immune systems of his generation could tell you something about who survives COVID?

Any thoughts?

[alancalverd]

Yes and no. My parents' generation and to some extent mine (I'm 76) grew up in a fair amount of grime and contagion, and on very short but extremely healthy rations.The result was that anyone who survived childhood and war was, either by genetics or acquisition, immune to almost every external challenge, and those who did any manual work were fit in heart and bone, leaving only cancer to kill us.

However COVID is a whole new challenge, and if anyone can acquire immunity before dying with it, it will be the young, not the elderly. 

As for psychological immunity to pain and suffering, I think we are doomed. A recent TV documentary about life on a modern warship included an actual combat incident. Just before the advertisement break we saw Royal Marines tooling up to beat the crap out of a bunch of baddies hurtling towards the ship in small boats, whilst the gunners prepared to sink the entire flotilla if they started shooting at the helicopter.  After the break, the announcer warned that "the following scene contains strong language".  More tea, vicar?