H5N1 Bird Flu strikes youngest hardest - Stats and charts.

[FormerRepublican]

I was reading that H5N1 strikes younger populations much harder than older populations. The vast majority of infections are in those younger than 39. You can see the breakdown here.

Since populations in western countries are mostly skewed toward an older population anyway, this could have devastating consequences to populations in the event of a pandemic with the same age distribution in infections and deaths. (Seriously exacerbating the Social Security problem would be one example of how a pandemic with this age distribution might cause social consequences beyond the pandemic itself.) This could play out in developing countries even worse, given their lack of medical infrastructure and vaccination capabilities. In many countries, the elderly are cared for exclusively by the younger generations with no government assistance for the elderly at all.

We could witness the destruction of significant percentages of the youth of the world, and serious problems in the elderly as a resulting social problem.