The United States has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus.
So far one of the most persistent pieces of information has been that young people do not have much to worry about, its the above 60 that's most at risk. The truth is, it’s a little more complicated than that.
New reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveal that almost 40 per cent of patients hospitalised in the US were in the 20-54 age group. However, it was true that patients at the most risk of death were above 60, reported The New York Times.
What does this mean?
Everyone, not just the elderly, should be worried about this disease, although it will still be hitting the elderly worst.
“It’s not just going to be the elderly. There will be people age 20 and up. They do have to be careful, even if they think that they’re young and healthy,” said Stephen S. Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health to The New York Times.
These findings correspond with reports from across the globe.
For example, in Italy and China, even young people have been infected so badly they have needed intensive care and hospitalisation.
These results mean that millennials are misinformed to believe they don’t pose a threat.
Health experts implored millennials to stop socialising, saying that if so many young people are being hospitalised it means they are potential carriers of the disease in the general community.
This means we could be spreading the disease to the more vulnerable. While young people have higher chances of recovery, we could inadvertently be seriously harming older people we interact with by passing on the virus.
The fact that younger people may get severely infected, take up hospital space, and recover faster all while transferring the virus to others who won’t be as lucky is alarming.
The CDC data, however, did not have details on if the younger patients had underlying symptoms or chronic diseases. As the disease evolves, experts are scrambling to find more reliable data to fill in the information gaps.
Very Young At Low Risk
Like much of the rest of the world, the CDC data shows that those below 19 show very little risk of dying from the novel coronavirus.
They account for less than 1 per cent of hospital admissions and no deaths or intensive care so far, reported NYT.
The largest paediatric study in China on this to date found that a very small segment of young children did need hospitalisation and one 14-year-old even died. However, much more data is needed to clarify the underlying causes before jumping to conclusions.
For the most part, the risk lies in young people being carriers and taking up hospital space when they could be avoiding that by social distancing and taking preventative measures.
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