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Originally Posted by someone123
It really has not caught on in NS like in the hot spots. NS hit 100 cases 18 days ago and is at 549 known with 3 deaths. 18 days after hitting 100 cases, NY was at 37,258 and had around 300 deaths.
It will be interesting to see what the eventual data is from antibody testing, and if there are any differences in the strains that have affected different areas. Viruses constantly mutate and these differences may become epidemiologically significant. If we are lucky a milder strain will proliferate more. It is even possible it will be worth inoculating people with a milder strain, just the live virus or some attenuated version. That's how early smallpox prevention worked.
There will always be anecdotes about people of different ages but so far it looks like it really hits elderly and those with comorbidities harder (and it may just be that elderly tend to have more pre-existing conditions, or maybe there's more to it than not; not sure). The median death in most places is around 80 and NS is like this so far if not higher. There have been a few high-profile younger deaths but they are a small percentage of the total and they may have comorbidities (e.g. severely weakened by cancer). It's pretty striking on a statistical level.
Italy deaths by age: https://www.statista.com/statistics/...gion-in-italy/
80-89 year olds: 7,890
20-29: 7 (in a country with over 160,000 known to be infected!) |
Yes, you can't argue with the data regarding deaths. My point about young vs old is that on average people with weaker bodies will always suffer more severe outcomes from illness. So that in itself isn't unique with coronavirus.
However, I thought it irresponsible for the organizations involved to create a narrative that young people would essentially not be affected and old people would almost certainly die from the illness. IMHO it supported an idea among many young people, who already by nature think they are virtually immortal (we all did when we were young), that they don't need to worry about the consequences of catching the virus because it wouldn't affect them, and that old people were going to die anyway, so no need to be concerned.
Interesting points about the strains. It will be fascinating to see the results of all the research happening at the moment.