Expressing surprise that young people are getting hit with the novel coronaviurs AKA CoV-2 or Covid-19, the nation’s infections disease front-man 80-year-old Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was examining the data. Fauci reported data that showed that 40% of hospitalized coronaviurs cases were in the 20-54 cohort. Fauci, who’s Director of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the Bethesda, Md.-based National Institutes of Health, shouldn’t be surprised that 40% of hospitalized cases are a young demographic with about 12 % in intensive care. Data shows 80% of the deaths from Covid-19 were 65 and older, with a higher percentage of those over 85. “I looks like there is a big difference between that demography from China and what we’re seeing in Europe,” Fauci said. Fauci didn’t say that the data provided by China may not match the actual incidence of Covid-19 in China’s 1.4 billion population.
Calling the new numbers on young people with Covid-19 “a very important critical issue that we’re looking very closely at,” Fauci showed that he’s not on top of current U.S. data on the incidence of coronavirus outbreaks on different age groups. Why Fauci believed China’s data is anyone’s guess. “Now we have to look at young people who are getting seriously ill from the European cohort and make sure that it isn’t just driven by the fact that they have underlying conditions . . ,” Fauci said. Fauci knows as an epidemiologist that viruses are easily transmitted to young people. Young people have higher incidence of getting the common cold or flu viruses than older adults, tending to run in contained environments, like schools, gymnasiums, sports or social venues. Most public school teachers know that K-12 students tend to infect each other and their families with various viruses.
Fauci thinks that young people have to have underlying health conditions to get infected by the common cold or seasonal flu. “Because we know that underlying conditions—all best are off no matter how young you are if you have an underlying, serious medical condition. You ‘re going to potentially get into trouble,” Fauci said. It doesn’t take an infectious disease specialist or epidemiologist to know that all normal young children are susceptible to common colds and seasonal flu. Most young people under the normal bell-shape curve get colds and seasonal flu during the most contagious Winter months. Why Fauci is so surprised or thinks underlying health conditions in young people predispose them to viruses is anyone’s guess. It should come as no surprise to any primary care doctor that children and adolescents get common colds and flu viruses at higher rates than adults.
Working as a researcher, not a clinician, for most of his career, Fauci would be well-advised to talk to pediatricians and primary care doctors about the incidence of common colds and seasonal flu in ordinarily healthy children and adolescents. “But if they don’t have underlying conditions, that will be something we will have to really examine as to why we’re seeing it her but we didn’t see it in China. So we’re going to look at that very closely.” China’s data on Covid-19 didn’t say that young people weren’t susceptible to the same kind of viruses as adults. It should come as no surprise to Fauci or any doctor that children and adolescents get infectious diseases when exposed. Underlying health conditions, like autoimmune disease or diabetes, would only make susceptibility to infection worse. Where’s the big surprise that children and adolescents are susceptible to Covid-19.
Why the 80-year-old Fauci became the administration’s point person on managing the coronavirus crisis in anyone’s guess. Surgeon General 46-year-old Jerome Adams warned young people to heed recommendations for social isolation, distancing and frequent hand-washing. Asked whether the U.S. could turn into another Italy with 69,927 total cases, 4,789 new cases and 6.077 deaths, Fauci said he didn’t think so. “I mean obviously, things are unpredictable, you can’t make any definitive statements, but if you look at the dynamics of the outbreak in Italy . . .” Fauci said. Fauci couldn’t say what would happen in the future. With the U.S. with 43,022 total cases, 9.456 new cases and 530 deaths, everyone wants answers from Fauci. “Again, I don’t why this is happening [in Italy] to such an extent,” Fauci said, looking like he can’t answer basic questions.
Expecting an octogenarian. Like Fauci, to function as the administration’s coronavirus point-man is a lot to ask. Fauci should have pointed out that much of Italy’s aging population live in crowded apartment buildings, much like New York City. In both places, Covid-19 spreads like wildfire in a dense population breeding ground. Well if Fauci has problems explaining the obvious, it’s time for the White House to switch to a younger media savvy doctor to explain what’s happening to the public. Fauci said Italy was “so overwhelmed from the beginning,” explaining why they couldn’t lockdown the virus before it ran wild in the Italian population. If New York City is any guide, any time you cram people into tight spaces, you’re going to get more community spread whether you want it or not. If there’s any silver lining, New York has a fatality rate of .75%, well below the national average of 1.25%. Death rates from Covid –19 worldwide run at 4.3% with Italy at an abysmal 9.4%.
