'Not a care in the world': In hard-hit states, younger adults increasingly bear brunt of COVID-19 cases
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The U.S. is seeing a "disturbing surge" of COVID-19 infections, particularly in the Southeast and West, Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday.
Playing a large part in this surge, health officials say, are increasing cases in younger people, in their 20s, 30s and 40s — increases that are driven, in part, by increased testing, but even more so by large gatherings.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged that young people have a "pent up urge" to go out into public spaces, but stressed the need to continue physical distancing and wear face coverings to prevent spread of the virus.
"The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges that we're seeing in Florida, Texas and Arizona," Fauci said.
The coronavirus spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets from coughing, sneezing, talking and singing.
"I've seen bars and restaurants that look like it's New Year's Eve 1999 — not a care in the world, nobody wearing masks, standing shoulder to shoulder," said Dr. James McDeavitt, senior vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
The number of COVID-19 cases has begun to rise as college athletes resume training. Members of the University of Houston football team have tested positive, as have players at the University of Texas at Austin and Clemson University in South Carolina.
Coronavirus hospitalizations surge in Arizona, Texas as cases increase nationwide
McDeavitt said Houston is seeing "very rapid increases" in new patients sick enough to be hospitalized, although the age range of the patients is unclear. However, most of those patients don't need intensive care or mechanical ventilation, McDeavitt said.
That suggests that current patients aren't quite as sick as those who fell ill in March and April. McDeavitt said that while it's true that doctors now have access to treatments like remdesivir and convalescent plasma, "our leading hypothesis is that we are probably seeing a slightly younger patient population."
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In general, older adults and those with chronic health problems have been more likely to develop more serious complications of COVID-19.
During a conference call Monday, Vice President Mike Pence told governors that a growing number of people under age 35 are testing positive for COVID-19, especially in hard-hit states such as Florida and Texas.
According to sources who were on the call, Pence said the White House is working with those states to address the rise in cases.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference last week that certain counties have reported that people under age 30 represent a majority of positive COVID-19 tests. On Monday, he said the spread of the coronavirus is "unacceptable."
It's a similar situation in Florida. During a news conference last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the average age of COVID-19 patients in the state had declined dramatically in recent months — from the 60s to 37.
"Those under 40, in particular, who don't have any significant underlying conditions, are much, much less likely to be hospitalized or to suffer fatality," DeSantis said. However, over the weekend, the state Health Department confirmed Florida's first COVID-19 death in a minor, a 17-year-old boy in Pasco County.
"We are starting to see younger patients coming in, more 30-, 40-year-old patients coming in, late 20s," June Ellis, an associate chief nursing officer at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, told NBC Miami.
Physicians in North Carolina, too, are seeing an uptick in COVID-19 among younger adults, even teenagers.
"As we're reopening, sports teams are getting back together and people are going to camps," said Dr. Katie Passaretti, medical director for infection prevention at Atrium Health in Charlotte. "We're starting to see some evidence of increased patients associated with that."
She echoed McDeavitt's observation that those patients don't seem to be as sick as older adults.
"We're not necessarily seeing an increase in the severity of disease. It's just that we're seeing evidence of more transmission," Passaretti said.
"Some people would like to say, well that's not a big deal because young people don't get as sick," Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said Tuesday on "TODAY." "But young people are then going to spend time with their parents and grandparents."
"Just because it starts with young people, doesn't mean it will stay with young people," Jha said.
Judith Malmgren, an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington's epidemiology department, noted a marked shift to younger COVID-19 cases in Washington in March and April in a study she co-authored. The study was posted to a preprint server and hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Malmgren said she, too, has noticed large numbers of young adults gathering in large crowds. But beyond that, people involved in essential work are more likely to be 20- to 39-year-olds, she said.
"They're also more likely to have interaction with the public, for example, packing your groceries at the grocery store," Malmgren said. "It's just the way that COVID-19 is spread, human to human, face to face."
We're sick and tired of waiting to reopen, but Covid isn't tired of making us sick.
3 W's: Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Watch your distance. And please, if the health department calls, answer the phone.
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) June 22, 2020
Experts say there are ways to minimize risk as people try to get back to some level of normal life without pushing the economy back into a lockdown. They include wearing face coverings, remaining vigilant about hand hygiene, staying about 6 feet away from others in public and avoiding others if you become sick.
"Everybody needs to take personal responsibility," McDeavitt said. "If we do those things, that will replicate a lot of what a lockdown does.
"But the challenge I see," McDeavitt added, is that "some people are taking it to heart, and others are acting like they're not in the middle of the worst global pandemic of this century."
Erika Edwards
Geoff Bennett and Monica Alba contributed.
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The trend in Florida is the number of cases is climbing at an alarming rate. We are testing more but what that has shown is the positive rate for the tests taken has close to doubled. From 5% to 9.4%
The governor of Florida has said that bars that violate the social distancing rules and capacity rules will have their liquor license suspended. The first of the bars found violating the rules, Knights Bar in Orlando had the license pulled.
I saw where the governor of Texas has asked citizens to stay home unless they need to be out. Cases there are skyrocketing.
Florida just set another record with 8797 new cases.
The 8797 was a type, it should read 5511, still a record.
California has them beat unfortunately....................
I saw an interview with a nurse in a hospital in southern California-- what she said was pretty scary.
She said its increasing so rapidly that they're running out of beds...ditto nearby hospitals.
So what are they doing? They are sending new patients off to other hospitals that have beds. And that means those in the northern part of the state.(They are shipping a lot of the patients for whom there's no bed space in southern california to San franciso and other northern parts).
I was wondering why there were so many new cases in the southern part of California,,,but not the center or the north. Seems inconsistant
One look at a map made it obvious-- California borders Arizona-- on of the worst hot spots. But that border with Arizona is only a small part of the border-- Arizona borders only the southern part of California. (So its not surprising that there's so miuch more contact there between Arizonnsa and Californians.
So that's why southern California has so few hospital beds available-- and such a large breakout-- but not the majority of the state that doesn't border Arizona!
The vast majority of California-- the central and northern parts, do not border Arizona.
(P.S: There's also a small part of California-- at the southern part of the state-- that borders Mexico but I don't imagine that's a factor-- all those large numbers of cases are in the part where the border is with Arizona)
California is experiencing this despite being the 1st state to lock down and one of the last to reopen and in slow phases. Yet we are as bad off as Texas and Florida. So the idea that states reopened too early causing this is pure politically motivated bs. The other note is that despite the uptick in cases the US death rate for the Wuhan virus is actually declining still. So while the virus is still out there the Italians seem to be right that it is weakening. People should be careful but not panicked, fear mongered, or guilt tripped back into any kind of repeat shutdown. The economic, social, psychological costs through domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, despair, suicide, etc is worse than the disease
how does that explain the problems Washington is having despite early lockdown and never fully reopening?
Well to tell the truth Kavika, I'm pretty sure that both of us felt like we were indestructible when we were in our 20s..... Hell you enjoyed jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. Me... I at least had the good sense to scream my liver out on the jumps I had to make.
The kids are going to learn about this virus one of two ways, and we both know it will come down to how smart they are about it.
Happy Wednesday my friend...!
Who said they were perfectly good aircraft....LOLOLOL
I was listening to a medical expert (pulmonary) and he said that around 40% of the young people that get the virus are going to have some lasting effects to their lungs. It may be years before that ugly reality comes to fruition, but it is quite possible.
And a Happy Wednesday to you.
Kind of like the steroids kids/athletes in the 80s & 90s were taking....
Kudos to both you and Kavika. They'd have had to push me out while I was passed out. Thank you to the both of you for your courage.
As for the college kids...currently a boom in our community, thanks to the kids. Unfortunately, common sense practices make no sense to people that don't employ common sense.
Are you saying common sense is not often common?
As Coach Kent Murphy would say, "let's break it down from a fundamental standpoint."
I'm not sure my understanding of common sense includes understanding typically marked by shrewdness. Thus, I'm inclined to believe sub (a) from "sense" is the more appropriate usage, but obviously (b) is given treatment in the definition of common sense, so I think it needs further inquiry. I think both may be usable. Also, the various definitions for "Common" do not appear to be given any treatment in the definition for "common sense."
The question is then, what meaning is given to the term "common." Is it widespread, general, occurring frequently, etc? Or, is it falling below ordinary standards?
For non-college adults over the age of 18, the definition of "common sense" may be 1,2,3, and/or 4 from "common" above, and a combination of the different meanings of "sense." Example, "a widespread or general capacity for effective application of the powers of the mind as a basis for action or thought." Possibly, " sound mental capacity and understanding typically marked by shrewdness and practicality, belonging to or shared by two or more..." I have a hard time believing that the actions of college kids generally exhibit an effective application of the powers of the mind or sound mental capacity, although whatever it is that is exhibited does occur frequently, or is widespread.
The more I look at this, the more I am convinced that, "common sense" should have various meanings, as do the individual component terms. For college kids, I would say that the following is an appropriate usage:
I think this definition, as applied to college kids, can be supported by one viewing of Ridiculousness.
Excellent...!
I rode rodeo in my 20's to include bulls. I found out the hard way that I was not indestructible.
Yes-- and even smoking cigarrettes.
I remember many years ago when it seemed the majority of people seemed to be smokers. Then (to a large degree due to some major lawsuits against tobacco companies) the truth about tobacco started to come out and became widely known..
Now-a-days I don't often see people smoking cigarettes, but when I do-- they're usually in their 20s or younger.
I think this definition, as applied to college kids, can be supported by one viewing of Ridiculousness.
Well I don't believe I've seen any of our "leaders' on that show-- but how can the lack of common sense be explained by: many of our leaders who themselves refuse to wear a mask? (And for that matter refuse to observe social distancing when they stand in crowded rooms during rallies, meetings, etc?)
Can they be given a little leeway? The media and the medical experts have been saying for weeks that the young are not effected. Perhaps a lesson they have learned.
Some of the media have been saying that. But not all.
Others have begun to see a disturbing trend: a slight but noticeable increase in cases of "Covid Inflammatory Disease". (At this point is is by no means an epidemic, IIRC not much is known about it yet.But initial reports are a bit disturbing:
The State Department of Health is investigating 225 reported cases and 3 deaths in New York of children - predominantly school-aged - experiencing symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome, possibly due to COVID-19.
Of the children displaying these symptoms, 94 percent tested positive for COVID-19 either by diagnostic, antibody testing or both.
The State Department of Health is investigating 225 reported cases and 3 deaths in New York of children - predominantly school-aged - experiencing symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome, possibly due to COVID-19. Of the children displaying these symptoms, 94 percent tested positive for COVID-19 either by diagnostic, antibody testing or both.
Though most children who get COVID-19 experience only mild symptoms, this inflammatory syndrome has features which overlap with Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome and may occur days to weeks after acute COVID-19 illness.
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Priceless.......
More of a general definition, unrelated to the virus, that I am sure I've seen reinforced over the years, and contributed to during my time. I may have coined the phrase "hold my beer."
My neighbors just headed for a wedding in AZ. It breaks my heart that I will have to stay away from them for two weeks once they return.
And THAT is what is really scary.
It seemed that initially people thought that mask should be worn for one reason-- so that they could avoid getting the virus. But then some people realized that there is a second reason as well-- to avoid spreading it if you have!
(Perhaps especially true of many younger people who have the virus but don't know it as they have few if any symptoms and don't wear masks...but then come into contact with many friends and relatives).
Which is one of the reasons why the numbers of infections and deaths in America are astronomical.
I have been taking all the right steps (social distancing, mask, only going out if I have to) but the more that get infected through selfishness increases my chances of being exposed on those few times I do have to go out.
Not too long after I posted this, I started to feel under the weather. I did my own self tracking to figure out where I might have been exposed despite my measures. Today, I woke up just fine and I figure it was just a slight summer cold which I get almost every year. If it was CV, it had to be the shortest duration on the books. I still plan to self isolate for the next week just to make sure.
A good step to take is to admit when you make a mistake rather than get angry and overreact.
Politicizing her daughter's death. Unbelievable.