Why are these young, supposedly people dying or struggling with the virus

[Dickorydockwhatthe]

21 year old girl has just died and there have been other cases of young, healthy people being hospitalised and critically ill. I was always under the impression that unless you were old or vulnerable or had underlying health issues you weren't at risk and likely to get it mild. Reading these stories is making me now even want to go out fullstop for essential supplies 😩

Anyone can die of this virus. Children seem to have caught it and not been too ill. But anyone else could die.
Soon hospitals will be overwhelmed. Then I expect over 60s wont get hospital beds and will die at home.

There's thought to be a link between smoking, vaping and drug use. That could possibly be a factor edition.cnn.com/2020/03/20/health/coronavirus-vaping-drugs/index.html

The reported severity and death rates came from a study from China just a few weeks after the virus had started.

Hundreds of thousands more people have been infected since then, so of course stats will change.

All we knew then was that in the early days of the virus, very few children or young healthy people became very ill or died. The stats for South Korea are very different for example with lots of young, healthy people becoming sick.

He never had a cough OR a fever. He simply experienced increasing chest tightening until he could barely breathe

This has terrified me

I hope that more people will take social distancing and isolation seriously now that they understand that it's not "just" the old and vulnerable. As a vulnerable person I found some peoples remarks disgusting as if we are disposable and not hard working, tax paying human beings with loved ones.

Also binge drinking can weaken the immune system www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8115521/How-drinking-alcohol-impact-immunity-leave-higher-risk-catching-coronvirus.html

Low risk isn't the same as no risk. Unfortunately some young people will be unlucky and unable to fight the virus off, very sad. (Very sad for anyone who dies).

Some people have underlying health conditions that they are not aware of. Any of us could have.

So-called swine flu back in 2009/10 was particularly dangerous to previously healthy young adults, IIRC. Teenagers are a particular risk group for meningococcal disease. Anyone can be very unlucky and get an infection that turns into sepsis. Deaths among the young are shocking, and rightly so, but young people have always been at risk from various things. And, as many point out, 'very low risk' does not translate to 'zero risk'. It's highly likely that in some cases, people will have undiagnosed underlying conditions or be otherwise susceptible (immunity having recently taken a hit from a bout of something else; smokers*/drug users; whatever). But there will be one or two isolated cases of completely healthy people being overwhelmed by the virus, just as happens with the seasonal flu every year. Which is scary, but unlikely. A fatal car accident (for example) is also scary, but unlikely. I'm not saying this to suggest we should ignore social distancing etc, far from it; I say it to help people who are understandably frightened by these reports put the risk in proportion.

*As an aside, I am bemused as to why none of the public health advice or information issued about this has involved 'FGS stop smoking already'.

It's just luck, biology is a strange thing sometimes.

I guess it's a similar reason (on a general level) why some people can smoke 20 a day and live into their 80s, and someone in their 20s who has never smoked can get lung cancer.

People are mistaking low risk for no risk. That's why they're playing Russian roulette with their lives.

(I was 32 at the time of swine flu, FWIW, and got a very nasty bout which led to bronchitis and did have, perhaps coincidentally, a few years of quite poor lung health after that. I'm fine now, though. I absolutely think it bears repeating that 'high risk' is not 'certain death'. It's still very, very far from the majority of people that are becoming seriously ill with this. Again, not intended to call the current measures into question, more to rationalise the risk on an individual basis).

The only safe group from the Hubei statistics are 0-9. The very young children only. It is always known there are deaths in the young and healthy teens and adults group. The hospitalisation rate in China is 20% and Italy higher. And there were a lot of 20-49 in hospital in Hubei. It’s just you are less likely to die or need hospitalisation if you are in the 20-49 group. It doesn’t mean you are invincible.

Young and supposedly healthy.

A lot of women especially equate thin to be fit over those who carry weight but I know loads of women who aren't thin but are a damn site healthier than those that deny themselves carbs/sugar/gawd knows what, to stay thin and are just bones and fat/skin.

There are people in their 90s surviving Covid 19 too

There is a belief amongst some Italian doctors that the young Italian marathon runner struggling in ICU may have undermined his immune system by the amount of training he was doing on a weekly basis. Apparently, he had run a couple of half marathons the week prior to his hospitalisation.

Very sad. She did have asthma.

Like a PP said, most of these stories are not fact-checked. If you read them, they are often based on social media posts and family members claiming that the person had covid-19 based on their symptoms and/or family belief, but without a positive test there's no way to know. The news media seem to have thrown all basic checks and balances out the window in favour of dramatic headlines. Did you see the article yesterday where a mother is claiming her baby has the virus, based entirely on a call she made to 111? It's ridiculous and is fuelling panic.

Do we know if this 21 years old smoked, drank much alcohol, took drugs, did any exercise..?

Doctors in New York are calling for the Governor to ban the sale of tobacco, cigarettes and vaping products as they say that studies are showing that using them makes the lungs less likely to be able to resist the virus. Im guessing that some of the younger people struggling with corona are vapers or smokers. (The medical connection between vaping/smoking and less ability to resist viral lung infestations makes logical sense to me)

From what I’ve read blood type has an influence on outcome (O type patients are less likely to catch it and do better if infected, A type the opposite.)

This is based on a study which is preliminary and has not even been published in a peer-reviewed journal. It is NOT fact. Please don't spout this sort of thing as it scares people.

I was always under the impression that unless you were old or vulnerable or had underlying health issues you weren't at risk and likely to get it mild.
Most younger people have had it mild compared to older ones. A lot of older people or those with underlying issues have died compared to younger ones.

Yes a friend is in hospital with it who is young and another friend is young and healthy and been really ill at home with it.

I don't really think any of this is helpful. Coronavirus is mild for most people who have it, but some people will become seriously ill. This is similar for flu, but with coronavirus your risk of becoming seriously ill is higher whatever age group you're in. Young people WILL still die from coronavirus but that DOES NOT mean that young people are anywhere near as statistically at risk from coronavirus as older people. As previous posters have pointed out, young people do die from infectious diseases, it's just rare. See, for example, this recent news story about a 17 year old girl who died from sepsis and bronchopnemonia caused by flu - www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-51883201