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 😩

@Packingsoapandwater That is interesting as I know intensive exercise like that does weaken your immune system, which few people seem to realise.

I have taken it seriously and followed government guidance. The only reason I'm going out and I'm trying to limit this is as much as possible is because my parents are struggling. I just thought being relatively fit and healthy I wouldn't be as ill if I did get infected compared to some one else.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52003804

This article helps explain it a bit more.

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

Nobody has said that.

They've said if you're old or have underlying health conditions you're more likely to struggle and have complications. Not that being young and healthy makes you immune to it.

There's a 12 year old and 5 year old in hospital too.
isn't this what happened in 1918 flu epidemic. First time round it got the kids, second time the parents, it's just reversed.

Please don't put your children at risk by asking/allowing them to volunteer, they could catch it from anywhere, nobody is immune.

@Tarttlet how many young people dying will it take before you realise you're wrong

People need to stop scrabbling around trying to find some reason why each case has succumbed that means the same thing couldn't happen to them.

Severe illness requiring hospitalisation occurs across all age groups and all levels of prior health, and fatalities have occurred across all 10+ age groups and all levels of fitness. Anyway can get this badly. Anyone can die of it. People must grasp this.

So far it has been the elderly or those with certain underlying conditions who have been most at risk, but things may change. In the US recent CDC figures indicate 40 % of hospitalised cases are 20-54yrs. They are seeing a younger range than Italy. Heard an interview with former CDC director saying far too much emphasis has been put on it affecting mainly older people and being mild for others..he said 'we were wrong about that.' Also said that you could be a 20 year old marathon in the best shape ever and become severely affected.

Nobody has said that.

To be fair its exactly what the government have been implying

Clinicians treating COVID19 are increasingly talking about HLH/Cytokine Storm Syndrome.

www.uab.edu/reporter/know-more/publications/item/8909-here-s-a-playbook-for-stopping-deadly-cytokine-storm-syndrome

The thing with underlying conditions is younger people have necessarily had them diagnosed yet.

Older people seem to be dying of the CV19 presentation of pneumonia but in the younger people who don’t have preexisting lung conditions, it’s looking like HLH/Cytokine storm.

U.K. clinicians have started running a screening test on all CV admissions to ICU (high ferritin levels are cheap and easy to test for, it’s not a complete diagnosis though, just an indicator).
Prompt diagnosis is really important though, it progresses fast and causes organ failure.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this lovely young woman’s autopsy shows an undiagnosed blood cancer (Leukaemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkins Disease) or a rheumatological problem (Still’s Disease).

Disclaimer, I am not a doctor, I just learned a lot about sHLH because my daughter had it.

Well you are highly unlikely to die from coronavirus if you are young and healthy. Just like you are unlikely to die on any day if you are young and healthy but it can happen at any time. It's baffling to me that so many young people seem unaware that they could die at any time.

A 0.4% deathrate in young adults doesn't mean no young adults die. It means 4 in every thousand die. It's been clear that the young and well could die, just were less likely to, from the earliest information coming out.

Because it is rare in the uk to die young.

This is so scary though.
Im nearly 50 with mild ssthma and had talked myself down off the ledge a few times reasoning with myself that im not high risk.

But young people dying scares the young and the old

People are definitely making the same mistake here that they do with cancer risks etc.

Risk factors for cancer are smoking, drinking, obesity and age. However this doesn't mean that if you are a 70 year old obese alcoholic who smokes 20 a day then you will definitely get cancer. And it also doesn't mean that if you are a 30 year old size 10 vegetarian clean eating gym bunny that you won't get cancer. It happens.

Say you have a dice and if you roll a 6 then you will die of coronavirus. People who are over 70, or who have certain health conditions will have more 6s on their dice. But they still might roll a 1. A healthy young person will only have one 6 on their dice, but that doesn't mean they won't land on it.

Sorry for the ridiculously oversimplified analogy, and obviously those odds are not to scale, it's just that I heard it once in a conversation about why young, healthy, non overweight, non smoking people still get cancer and I thought it was quite useful!

0.4% means 2 kids in every secondary school. I was told I was scaremongering for saying that a week ago.

Of course otherwise fit, healthy young people can die of covid 19
Anybody can

We could all die from SADS (sudden adult death syndrome) eg. No explained cause at all.

We could die from an anaphylactic reaction to something we've never reacted to before.

People die. They die sometimes with no explanation. And covid 19 is a big reason. The numbers haven't changed. This has just been personalised.

Please stop trying to come up with reasons it can't or won't effect you. We are ALL vulnerable and mortal. Some more so than others. But NOBODY is immune to this virus: that's the point. It's a new virus with vaccination so we are all vulnerable to it.

Cancer is a slower process.

You cant catch it from touching a pole on the bus.

Cancer stats dont change the fact that this virus is scarier than we wanted to believe

Sorry I meant that some of us are more vulnerable than others but obviously we are all as mortal as each other.

Also that there is NO vaccine sorry

To be fair its exactly what the government have been implying

They've never said it though - nobody has. People just think it's something that will effect everyone else and so they should be able to go around and live their lives as normal.

I wasn't comparing cancer directly to CV (?!) I was just talking about the way that people view risk factors.

Low risk is not the same as no risk.

This has been a bugbear of mine since this virus left China.

When the advice states that in general, children and young people either present asymptomatically or with mild symptoms and recover well, that means that they can also sometimes die.

I've seen countless posts repeating the incorrect claim that 'it doesn't affect children' - it does.

Saying that, I've seen some articles suggesting that the disease is badly affecting more children and young people than it was previously, which is worrying.

Young fit people occasionally die of flu even though it’s rare. It’s about risks and probabilities not certainties.

Genx, that's not what LambriniSocialist is saying. She's explaining how risk works.

I like the dice analogy. And there are all things we can do to reduce the number of 6s on ours as far as coronavirus is concerned. Observe the social distancing recommendations wherever possible. Take common-sense health precautions (I have always washed my hands whenever I come into the house from being outside and have always made my children do it too. Am a bit baffled it's a new concept to so many. We still all got norovirus last Christmas of all times. But there may well have been many times we didn't get it, or flu, or something else). Stop smoking. Eat well. Do moderate exercise. Keep an eye on how we are and act if symptoms appear.

I find it scary tbh, I don't really think they know what they are up against with this disease and this is why I have only allowed my children in the garden