Younger adults are large percentage of COVID-19 hospitalizations in U.S., new CDC data show

[riversedge]

Source: Pittsburgh post-gazette




Ariana Eunjung Cha The Washington Post
Mar 20, 2020 4:30 AM

The deadly coronavirus has been met with a bit of a shrug among some in the under-50 set in the United States. Even as public health officials repeatedly urged social distancing, the young and hip spilled out of bars on Bourbon Street. They gleefully hopped on flights, tweeting about the rock bottom airfares. And they gathered in packs on beaches.

Their attitudes were based in part on early data from China, which suggested COVID-19 might seriously sicken or kill the elderly - but spare the young.

Stark new data from the United States and Europe suggests otherwise.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of U.S. cases from Feb. 12 to March 16 that was released Wednesday shows that 38% of those sick enough to be hospitalized were younger than 55 years.

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


One younger adult, a University of Utah genetics researcher, Clement Chow, has been tweeting about his experiences. “Important point: we really don’t know much about his virus. I’m young and not high risk, yet I am in the ICU with a very severe case,” he wrote. He said he was facing respiratory failure and put on oxygen...............................
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Read more: https://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2020/03/20/CDC-coronavirus-hospitalizations-young-adults-US-COVID-19-report/stories/202003200069

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Some may have had a false sense of security for awhile--but no more.








James Meenan, director of Virginia Hospital Center outpatient lab, gives directions to a patient at a drive-through coronavirus testing site in Arlington, Va., on March 18, 2020.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Someone on TV mentioned obesity as an adverse co-condition

inside that would be inflammation. The young are not immune to inflammation because of their diet. I'm no doctor but I suspect background inflammation from diets high in sugar, carbs, dairy, fats is adverse too. I mention this because of flu that I've had. I'd rather meet a flu with a diet of rice and chicken soup than cheeseburgers and ice cream. A body that's efficient meets the inflammation of flu a lot better.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. It's called a cytokine storm and was a major cause of death in 1918...

when young people's immune systems were essentially turned upside down.

Every epidemiologist knows about it.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Yup

We are seeing it in PA - about half of the positives are "younger" people and a good chunk of those end up in the hospital. When Montgomery County has been giving their daily updates, they have been giving the ages of new positives and I keep hearing a couple of "a 35-year old" or "a 27 year old"... etc.

Montgomery County, that has been the initial epicenter of PA's outbreak, had this informative data posted yesterday with their update -

[Dem forever]

4. Young people

Well when they come back from the fla debacle and get sick maybe they won’t be so stupid.

[projectiboga]

5. seems to hit type o blood less

Some research seems to point to a sensitivity, possibly linked to blood type. Type o lowest risk, not sure about A, B & AB, types.

[Igel]

6. There are a lot of trends.

Whether they hold up or are the result of confounds, we'll so.

Blood type O.

Cold weather enables transmission; warm, humid impedes it.

Men get hit almost twice as hard.


Mostly the concerns I hear are "oh, no, it's affecting people like me!" and "Trump's an idiot because _________." Even the people citing the two studies showing temperature feel the need to point out cases in warm climates.

Even the "men are more affected" gets commentators retreating to estrogen levels and immunity (there is something there, but 2x as much?) Others are less sanguine and point out health, exposure, and behavior differences.

And it's all in differential rates, not absolutes.

[JudyM]

8. Blood type A seems to be having the hardest time of it.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.11.20031096v1

[Igel]

7. The actual story's been about the same.

It's the perception and quick-reads that are different.

There's no reason to think that infection depends on age. Nobody that's sane or reasonable well informed has said that. Yes, Elon Musk said that young people are immune, but I said "nobody that's sane or reasonably well informed," so stop with the straw men.

It's still true that minors seldom show much in the way of symptoms. "Seldom, much" are in that sentence and can't be elided.

The stats that show mortality is strongly age-correlated are unchallenged. You're more likely to die if you're over 60, with over 70 even worse.

That leaves a lot of sick young people who aren't at high risk of dying.

So they go into the hospital and leave a week later on their own two feet.

(1) The rates of hospitalization are lower. Less than 1/2 of the US population is over 55. Those over 55 still make up nearly 2/3 of the hospitalizations. So 2/3 of the population makes up 1/3 of the cases.

(2) It may well be the case that many of the hospitalizations for those under 55 are precautionary. "Yes, you're sick, but it's not life threatening. Let's admit you, just in case." Those will stop as more, "It's life threatening, esp. given your age." And they'll be outrage when somebody 70 is admitted, at greater risk, and somebody at 30 isn't but dies.