COVID-19 does affect younger people

It is true that the worst outcomes are observed in the elderly, and they have the highest probability of getting sick and of a fatal outcome from it. BUT, it is not true that the virus doesn't affect younger people. Let the data speak.


In the USA, the CDC has published the data on severe outcomes from cases between February  12 and March 16.

The CDC reports that 38% of those hospitalized are below 55years of age and, no, most of them are not in the older bracket of that range.



The first ones to arrive to this mess and also to start producing research out of it, the Chinese, have published the findings on 2143 pediatrics cases, most of them from the Hubei province where the outbreak initiated. 13 cases got to be critical; 112 severe.

 I interpret the absence of a "Deaths" category as a sign that there was no death among the cases (Source)

The Washington Post reports that

Earlier this week, French health ministry official Jérome Salomon said half of the 300 to 400 coronavirus patients treated in intensive care units in Paris were younger than 65, and, according to numbers presented at a seminar of intensive care specialists, half the ICU patients in the Netherlands were younger than 50.

We don't have the age distribution of the patients in Italy, but some of the highlighted cases in worldometers include the death of some fourty-something year old patients.

cases highlighted on worldometers.info on March 20, 2020

The numbers coming out of Spain also call for a warning to younger people. Data from the Ministry of Health on 18959 cases shows a reduced number of cases compared to the total but, nonetheless, 232 patients below 30 years old that required hospitalization, with 5 of them resulting in death.

Cases confirmed (confirmados), total of hospitalized cases (Hospitalizados totales), requiring ICU (UCI) and resulting in death (Fallecidos) out of 18959 cases (source MoH memo).

It is true that MOST cases among young people resolve with mild symptoms and in a few days, but we are yet to see what will happen when the virus hits an expansive population pyramid with persistent malnutrition. We also don't know what will happen if COVID-19 hits a crowded informal settlement, or how weak health care systems can manage to respond to a wide spread of the virus.

 

 (Source UN)

The strategy of early lockdown that many African countries are adopting seems a necessity, as the scientific community runs against the clock to find an effective treatment and, in the farther future, a vaccine that protects most of the population. We need to find a way to convince people to stop attending gatherings, even religious ones. We need to inform of the gravity of the situation without generating panic. Things could get really bad, but we are doing the right things. If we keep doing them, we will be protective ourselves and our communities. Simply STAY HOME.