Why Are Some Young, Healthy People Getting Severe COVID-19? [View all]
Most young people who get COVID-19 get pretty nasty flu-like symptoms but fight off the infection on their own with bed rest and over-the-counter pain medication. Some, though, have a severe, even deadly, case. Why is it that someone who seems healthy and has no underlying conditions could be killed by this virus when so many of their peers pull through just fine? Let’s break down what we know and what research is needed to answer this COVID-19 mystery.
What we know
Our understanding of why some people get mild infections while others wind up hospitalized or killed by COVID-19 is still limited. In the U.S., 34 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases are in patients under the age of 45, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from mid-March. Of patients known to be hospitalized, about 20 percent were under 45, and of those known to be admitted to the ICU, 12 percent were under 45. The CDC also reports that the case fatality rate is less than 1 percent for people age 20-54.
But there isn’t much we know about why some young people are getting extremely sick and others aren’t. We know that age is a risk factor — the case fatality rate for COVID-19 climbs steeply for patients over 60. This is true for a lot of infections and generally has to do with diminishing immune systems and underlying health conditions.
But that doesn’t help us figure out what’s going on with these cases where young people get sick and it quickly turns serious. It’s not as simple as pointing to underlying conditions. Many conditions, such as asthma, haven’t been definitively confirmed as risk factors, though many doctors suspect they are.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-are-some-young-healthy-people-getting-severe-covid-19/
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