Dear Reader:

Some people say: if the mortality rate is so low for the young (1% for ages 0-49, 4.9% for ages 50-69, 22.8% for ages 60 and older, according to worldometer), why not let the young/ younger people out and about saving the economy, and keep the older people quarantined? 1% death rate doesn’t read like too much of a risk, does it?

The answer according to epidemiologists is that first, 1% (10 times the mortality of seasonal flu) of a huge number of people, is a big number of dead people; second, even though younger people’s Covid-19  mortality rate is low, that is, they are not likely to die in the hospital, they occupy beds and ICU resources. that otherwise are not available to people suffering from other illnesses who will die without hospitalization.

www. washingtonpost. com/ health/2020/03/19/ younger-adults-are-large-percentage-coronavirus-hospitalizations-united-states-according-new-cdc-data has a “Figure 2”, a bar graph showing Covid-19 hospitalizations and intensive unit (ICU) admissions and death by age group in the U.S.A between Feb 12 and March 16. According to the graph among people 20-44 years old, there were about 100 hospitalizations and about 15 ICU admissions, compared to the numbers for people 65-74 years old: about 120 hospitalizations and about 35 ICU admissions.

Same article explained that it is unknown how many of the younger people hospitalized and admitted to the ICU had underlying conditions. The article also explains that it is difficult to compare coronavirus cases by age across countries because of differences in the environment, lifestyle and demographics: in some countries young people smoke more than in other countries; in some countries many more young people live with older relatives than in other countries; in some countries it is more difficult to be admitted to a hospital than in other countries; some countries are more polluted than other countries, etc., so there are multiple factors that influence why in some countries more young people are hospitalized than in other countries.

My  comments: according to the bar graph above, the number of hospitalizations among the 20-44 age group was significant: about 100 hospitalizations compared to about 120 of ages 65-74.

More younger people are likely to be hospitalized because of Covid-19 in countries where smoking is more common (ex. Greece compared to India), in countries more polluted, and in countries where it is common for younger people to live with their older relatives (Italy compared to Sweden where such is uncommon), and in countries/States where the population density is much higher (ex., New York City/ State, USA, compared to Montana, USA).

Back to the point in the beginning of this post: even though the mortality in younger people is much lower than in older people, younger people get hospitalized and therefore occupy beds and use hospital resources that are not available for people suffering from other diseases who will die without hospitalization.

anita

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by .