COVID19: More Younger People Are Getting Infected
By Saswat Pattanayak
One of the lingering myths about Novel Coronavirus is that it impacts older people disproportionately. It has been time and again asserted despite the fact that most younger people are never getting tested to begin with. It is true that almost all the data available so far that are coming in from Europe suggest older population - especially people above the age of 80 - comprise 99% of the victims - this is what Trump’s press briefing outlined yesterday. It was also said that no one below the age of 15 had died in all of Europe.
That may as well be true, but it cannot be ruled out that none of the children or young adults who are dying so far from flu or flu like symptoms - and there are thousands of these deaths - were immune from COVID19. Without extensive testing among the general population regardless of their age, it is scientifically impossible to deduce a conclusion that paints a direct correlation between age and the mortality factor.
Coming to New York City which has emerged as the global epicenter today - some testing results have finally surfaced which quashes the long held misconception. According to a New York Times report from yesterday, as much as 46 percent of positive tests are attributed to people in the age group of 18 to 44. Considering that testing is strictly limited to people with life-threatening symptoms, these young people are not exhibiting mild or moderate health situation. And in most likelihood, so many young people simply cannot be having preexisting conditions with compromised immune system either.
Likewise, it has come to light through another report from Wall Street Journal that Koreans had a different testing methodology compared to Italy. Whereas in Italy, only older people were tested that resulted in a skewed research outcome, South Korea had a more or less universal testing of symptomatic people across all age groups, and they have concluded that most people tested actually were in the age group of 20 to 29. Following graph sheds necessary light on this -
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
New C.D.C. data from March 18 also shows that nearly 40 percent of patients who were in critical condition - and therefore, hospitalized, were between the age of 20 to 54. Out of 508 hospitalized patients under this study, about 38 percent were in this age group and what is more, almost half of the 121 patients who were admitted to Intensive Care Units were adults under 65.
All of the above 508 hospitalized cases are people who were selectively studied - as in, these are people who had not returned from Wuhan, China or from Japan. Among similar group of tested cases that comprised 2,449 patients, as much as 29% belonged to age 20 and 44. Only 6 percent of the patients were above 85 years old.
From among them, 44 people succumbed to death and out of them as many as 9 deaths were of people between 20 to 64. Not just hospitalization and ICU, but even when it comes to deaths from COVID19, age is not an independent variable, once we take into account greater amount of diversified data.
