歐洲和美國的最新證據表明,全球肆虐的新型冠狀病毒對年輕人的影響,遠比最初想象的要嚴重的多。
雖然中國最初的數據顯示,老年人和存在其他健康問題的人群是最脆弱的群體,但從二十多歲到四十出頭的年輕人也可能出現危重癥狀。根據意大利和法國報告的病例,許多年輕人需要重癥監護。患有其他疾病但尚未被確診的人群面臨的風險尤其嚴重。
白宮新型冠狀病毒應對協調官德博拉·伯克斯在周三的新聞簡報會上引用歐洲報告的病例稱:“千禧一代是美國人口占比最多的代際,他們是未來幾十年帶領美國前進的一代。這一代人中可能有非常高的感染比例。”
統計數據證實了這種擔憂。Statista網站上公布的數據顯示,在歐洲疫情最嚴重的意大利,近28000名新冠肺炎患者中,約四分之一年齡在19歲至50歲之間。
美國也有類似的趨勢。美國疾病預防與控制中心的數據顯示,美國最早一批近2500例新型冠狀病毒確診病例中,705例是20至44歲的年輕人。15%至20%最終需要住院治療,其中4%需要重癥監護,并且出現了少數死亡病例。
其中一位年輕人是來自猶他大學的遺傳學副教授克萊門特·周。他在3月15日發推文說:“我很年輕,不是高風險人群,但我卻因為病情危重住進了ICU病房。我們對這種病毒真的知之甚少。”
周的推文顯示,他先是連續幾天發低燒,然后出現嚴重咳嗽,導致呼吸衰竭。后來他被確診感染了新型冠狀病毒。最后他不得不在ICU病房接受高流量氧療。他在上周四住進ICU病房,是那里的第一位新冠肺炎患者。他在推文中說:“現在患者越來越多。”
周沒有在推文中透露自己的年齡,但他的實驗室網站上顯示,他在2003年大學畢業,有兩個淘氣的孩子。
新型冠狀病毒的死亡風險確實會隨著年齡突然升高。美國疾控中心的報告顯示,雖然美國只有144名患者年齡超過85歲,但其中70%的患者需住院治療,29%需要重癥監護。疾控中心在《發病率和死亡率周報》中表示,這些老年患者的死亡率高達25%。
在白宮周三的新聞簡報會上,美國總統唐納德·特朗普呼吁年輕人停止一些不計后果的行為,比如舉行派對、去海灘和在酒吧聚集等。但隨著全美各地的大學校園紛紛關閉并要求學生離校,即便是最謹慎的年輕人也會面臨困難的選擇。學生們發現自己的學年縮短,畢業計劃被打亂,他們不得不開車或者坐飛機回家。但他們回家很可能會讓父母和祖父母感染病毒。
在大城市里打拼的年輕人也有同樣的擔憂。他們突然發現自己面臨著回到家鄉的壓力。幾周以來,利維亞·克萊瑞的爸爸一直讓她回家。25歲的克萊瑞和男朋友住在紐約市的布魯克林,他們不安地看到政府的警告日益嚴重,他們所生活的城市最終也選擇了“封城”。但至少目前,他們決定留在紐約。
他們養了兩只貓,如果要搬家必須帶著它們。如果去華盛頓特區與克萊瑞的爸爸住在一起,他們必須在一個單獨的樓層自我隔離兩周。而且,他們還擔心不小心把病毒帶回家。
克萊瑞的爸爸已經65歲。她說:“我非常擔心會讓他感染病毒,或許這樣想沒有什么道理。但如果這種事真得發生,我會非常難受。”
經過幾天的慎重思考,他們決定留在紐約,重新評估紐約的封城政策是否會嚴重到讓他們無法走出公寓散步的程度。
留在家中
政府的疫情防控人員愿意用各種非同尋常的方式,在年輕人聚集的地方進行宣傳,包括Barstool Sports的“Pardon My Take”播客。這是最受年輕人歡迎的體育節目之一。
美國國家過敏和傳染病研究所負責人安東尼·福奇向該節目的主持人講述了新冠疫情帶來的壓力。
他說:“你無法想象。你看到了中國的情況,看到了意大利的情況。美國也有病毒在傳播。我們希望盡最大努力,保證美國的疫情不會發展到其他國家那樣的程度。”
他還呼吁年輕人配合政府的工作,努力保護好自己和全體美國人。
他說:“沒有人是絕對安全的。即使你現在非常健康,你也應該在全國防控疫情的工作中發揮重要的作用。在疫情防控過程中,你不能消極應對,而是應該積極行動起來。我們真的需要你。沒有你的參與,疫情防控無法取得成功。”(財富中文網)
翻譯:劉進龍
審校:汪皓
歐洲和美國的最新證據表明,全球肆虐的新型冠狀病毒對年輕人的影響,遠比最初想象的要嚴重的多。
雖然中國最初的數據顯示,老年人和存在其他健康問題的人群是最脆弱的群體,但從二十多歲到四十出頭的年輕人也可能出現危重癥狀。根據意大利和法國報告的病例,許多年輕人需要重癥監護。患有其他疾病但尚未被確診的人群面臨的風險尤其嚴重。
白宮新型冠狀病毒應對協調官德博拉·伯克斯在周三的新聞簡報會上引用歐洲報告的病例稱:“千禧一代是美國人口占比最多的代際,他們是未來幾十年帶領美國前進的一代。這一代人中可能有非常高的感染比例。”
統計數據證實了這種擔憂。Statista網站上公布的數據顯示,在歐洲疫情最嚴重的意大利,近28000名新冠肺炎患者中,約四分之一年齡在19歲至50歲之間。
美國也有類似的趨勢。美國疾病預防與控制中心的數據顯示,美國最早一批近2500例新型冠狀病毒確診病例中,705例是20至44歲的年輕人。15%至20%最終需要住院治療,其中4%需要重癥監護,并且出現了少數死亡病例。
其中一位年輕人是來自猶他大學的遺傳學副教授克萊門特·周。他在3月15日發推文說:“我很年輕,不是高風險人群,但我卻因為病情危重住進了ICU病房。我們對這種病毒真的知之甚少。”
周的推文顯示,他先是連續幾天發低燒,然后出現嚴重咳嗽,導致呼吸衰竭。后來他被確診感染了新型冠狀病毒。最后他不得不在ICU病房接受高流量氧療。他在上周四住進ICU病房,是那里的第一位新冠肺炎患者。他在推文中說:“現在患者越來越多。”
周沒有在推文中透露自己的年齡,但他的實驗室網站上顯示,他在2003年大學畢業,有兩個淘氣的孩子。
新型冠狀病毒的死亡風險確實會隨著年齡突然升高。美國疾控中心的報告顯示,雖然美國只有144名患者年齡超過85歲,但其中70%的患者需住院治療,29%需要重癥監護。疾控中心在《發病率和死亡率周報》中表示,這些老年患者的死亡率高達25%。
在白宮周三的新聞簡報會上,美國總統唐納德·特朗普呼吁年輕人停止一些不計后果的行為,比如舉行派對、去海灘和在酒吧聚集等。但隨著全美各地的大學校園紛紛關閉并要求學生離校,即便是最謹慎的年輕人也會面臨困難的選擇。學生們發現自己的學年縮短,畢業計劃被打亂,他們不得不開車或者坐飛機回家。但他們回家很可能會讓父母和祖父母感染病毒。
在大城市里打拼的年輕人也有同樣的擔憂。他們突然發現自己面臨著回到家鄉的壓力。幾周以來,利維亞·克萊瑞的爸爸一直讓她回家。25歲的克萊瑞和男朋友住在紐約市的布魯克林,他們不安地看到政府的警告日益嚴重,他們所生活的城市最終也選擇了“封城”。但至少目前,他們決定留在紐約。
他們養了兩只貓,如果要搬家必須帶著它們。如果去華盛頓特區與克萊瑞的爸爸住在一起,他們必須在一個單獨的樓層自我隔離兩周。而且,他們還擔心不小心把病毒帶回家。
克萊瑞的爸爸已經65歲。她說:“我非常擔心會讓他感染病毒,或許這樣想沒有什么道理。但如果這種事真得發生,我會非常難受。”
經過幾天的慎重思考,他們決定留在紐約,重新評估紐約的封城政策是否會嚴重到讓他們無法走出公寓散步的程度。
留在家中
政府的疫情防控人員愿意用各種非同尋常的方式,在年輕人聚集的地方進行宣傳,包括Barstool Sports的“Pardon My Take”播客。這是最受年輕人歡迎的體育節目之一。
美國國家過敏和傳染病研究所負責人安東尼·福奇向該節目的主持人講述了新冠疫情帶來的壓力。
他說:“你無法想象。你看到了中國的情況,看到了意大利的情況。美國也有病毒在傳播。我們希望盡最大努力,保證美國的疫情不會發展到其他國家那樣的程度。”
他還呼吁年輕人配合政府的工作,努力保護好自己和全體美國人。
他說:“沒有人是絕對安全的。即使你現在非常健康,你也應該在全國防控疫情的工作中發揮重要的作用。在疫情防控過程中,你不能消極應對,而是應該積極行動起來。我們真的需要你。沒有你的參與,疫情防控無法取得成功。”(財富中文網)
翻譯:劉進龍
審校:汪皓
New evidence from Europe and the U.S. suggests that younger adults aren’t as impervious to the novel coronavirus that’s circulating worldwide as originally thought.
Despite initial data from China that showed elderly people and those with other health conditions were most vulnerable, young people—from twenty-somethings to those in their early forties—are falling seriously ill. Many require intensive care, according to reports from Italy and France. The risk is particularly dire for those with ailments that haven’t yet been diagnosed.
“It may have been that the millennial generation, our largest generation, our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades, here may be a disproportional number of infections among that group,” Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in a press conference on Wednesday, citing the reports.
The data bears out that concern. In Italy, the hardest hit country in Europe, almost a quarter of the nearly 28,000 coronavirus patients are between the ages of 19 and 50, according to data website Statista.
Similar trends have been seen in the U.S. Among nearly 2,500 of the first coronavirus cases in the U.S., 705 were aged 20 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 15% and 20% eventually ended up in the hospital, including as many as 4% who needed intensive care. Fewdied.
One of those younger adults is Clement Chow, an assistant professor of genetics at the University of Utah. "I’m young and not high risk, yet I am in the ICU with a very severe case,” Chow said in a March 15 tweet. "We really don’t know much about this virus."
According to his Twitter posts, Chow had a low-grade fever for a few days and then a bad cough that led to respiratory failure. It turned out to be the coronavirus. He ended up on high flow oxygen in the ICU. When he arrived last Thursday, he was the first patient there. "Now there are many more," he tweeted.
Chow didn't give his age in the tweets, but his laboratory website indicates he graduated from college in 2003 and has two unruly children. He didn't respond to an email and Bloomberg was unable to independently confirm his status as a patient.
It’s true that risk of death climbs precipitously with age. While there were only 144 patients over age 85, as many as 70% were hospitalized and 29% needed intensive care, according to the CDC report. One in four died, the agency said in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
In the White House press conference Wednesday, President Donald Trump implored younger people to stop reckless behavior, such as partying, going to the beach and hanging out at bars. Yet, as college campuses across the country close down and require students to leave, even the most conscientious young adults face a difficult choice. Finding their academic years abbreviated and graduation plans shattered, many are driving or flying home, where they risk of exposing their parents and grandparents to Covid-19.
The same concerns apply to young people starting out in big cities who suddenly find themselves under pressure to head back to their hometowns. Livia Calari's father has been begging her to come home for weeks. The 25-year-old and her boyfriend live in Brooklyn, New York, and have been nervously watching the warnings from officials intensify and the city they live in shut down. But they're staying put, for now at least.
The couple has two cats they'd have to move. If they did hunker down with Calari's father in Washington, D.C., they would be asked to self-quarantine on a separate floor for two weeks. Plus, the thought of accidentally bringing the virus worries them.
“I have a lot of anxiety, maybe irrationally, about bringing it to him,” Calari said of her father, who's 65. “I would feel awful.”
After days of thinking over their options, they decided to stay in New York and re-evaluate if a lockdown gets to the point where they can’t even leave their apartment to take walks.
Stay home
Infection-fighting officials are willing to go to unusual lengths to get the word out to young people where they congregate, including on the Pardon My Take podcast from Barstool Sports – one of the most popular sports shows with younger listeners.
Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the hosts how stressful the outbreak has been.
“You cannot imagine,’’ he said. “You see what happened in China, you see what’s happening in Italy. We have the virus in the United States, and we want to make sure by our efforts that we don’t have that degree of disease and suffering that we are seeing in other countries.’’
And he called on young people to embrace the effort to protect themselves and the broader population.
“No one is invulnerable, but even if you are doing very well, you have to be a very important part of our national effort to contain the outbreak,’’ Fauci said. “You are not a passive person in this. You are an important part of the active plan to contain this epidemic. We really do need you. This isn’t something that can be successful without you.”