Many younger adults have shrug off the deadly coronavirus within the United State. As public health officials repeatedly urged social distancing, many ignored the warnings and spilled out into bars and restaurants. Many more gleefully hopped on flights, tweeting about the low-priced airfares, and gathered in packs on beaches.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of U.S. cases released Wednesday shows 38 percent of those sick enough to be hospitalized were younger than 55.
French health ministry official Jérome Salomon stated that half of the 400 coronavirus patients in Intensive Care Units in Paris were younger than 65.
Deborah Birx, the response coordinator of the nationʻs coronavirus task force, warned about the concerning reports from France — and Italy, too — about “young people getting seriously ill and very seriously ill in the ICUs.”
She called out younger generations in particular, for not taking the virus seriously, and warned of “disproportional number of infections among that group.”
Clement Chow, a genetics researcher at the University of Utah, has been tweeting about his experiences. “I’m young and not high risk, yet I am in the ICU with a very severe case.” He said he was facing respiratory failure and put on oxygen.
Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said the numbers show it’s clear “everybody has risk. Even in young people, there is a percentage that has serious infection.”
