Dear Reader:

The current huge difference in the Covid-19 mortality rate by age  is not a reason whatsoever for younger people to feel confident. This trend of age difference in mortality rate can change if social distancing, quarantines and shut downs are not enforced because the more infections=> the more the virus mutates, and it can mutate to a form that will kill younger people, which is what happened a 100 years ago during the second wave of the Spanish flu pandemic, (Jan 1918- July 1918, was the first wave, the second wave started in August 2018), Wiki:

The second wave of the pandemic was “much deadlier than the first. The first wave had resembled typical flu epidemics; those most at risk were the sick and elderly, while younger, healthier people recovered easily. By August, when the second wave began in France, Sierra Leone, and the United States, the virus had mutated to a much deadlier form. October 1918 was the deadliest month of the whole pandemic… the second wave was far more deadly; the most vulnerable people were those like the soldiers in the trenches – adults who were young and fit”.

* A bit of an encouraging info regarding the Spanish flu: “After the lethal second wave struck in late 1918, new cases dropped abruptly – almost to nothing after the peak in the second wave. In Philadelphia, for example, 4,597 people died in the week ending 16 October, but by 11 November, influenza had almost disappeared from the city.… Another theory holds that the 1918 virus mutated extremely rapidly to a less lethal strain. This is a common occurrence with influenza viruses: there is a tendency for pathogenic viruses to become less lethal with time, as the hosts of more dangerous strains tend to die out”- this is about Influenza, not Covid-19, different virus, but it is good to know that a virus can mutate to a lesser lethal form.

anita