Is COVID-19 Dangerous?

Question

Is COVID-19 really that dangerous?

Answer

A lot of the early news on COVID-19 was confusing, and some of it still is. It’s actually a family of viruses, with this particular strain coming out of Wuhan, China.

Early on, it was said “old people” and those with underlying medical conditions were more at risk. I still believe that’s true, albeit some disturbing information on how it effects young people is now emerging.

So the last I had seen, some 38% of cases were being diagnosed in those between 16-28 years of age. That’s an alarming percentage, and it seems to be holding. Now it’s probably fair to say more of those young folks recover, but we need to understand why all a sudden there are so many.

In a nutshell, I think it goes back to a feeling of invincibility – these kids just never took the same precautions the elder population did. A whole lot less “social distancing’ was taking place, like throngs of idiot kids on spring break, acting like nothing’s wrong.

Beyond that, this is something you need to take very seriously. Because if you don’t, and you have an event that complicates the situation (like socialized medicine in Italy), you get 700+ people dying a day – across many age ranges.

It’s also true that many, many people get the virus and remain asymptomatic. But then again, many get all the symptoms and are said to be, “recovered.”

Ask yourself though, what does that really mean? It could mean everything from a complete recovery to they lived, but they’re left with just 50% of their lung capacity for the rest of their lives. I dunno about you, but cardio is already hard enough without losing 50% of my lung capacity.

To best deal with this thing, keep some common sense about you: Don’t go looking for it like some of these millennials did – because they found it. If you’re a BP Bulletin subscriber, the lead article next month deals with everything you can do to play it safe.There is some surprising info I came across when researching such, and frankly they’ll be more on the way the following month.

BOTTOM LINE

This is a serious virus, and it can kill you (no matter what your age) if you don’t take things seriously.

For more information, please visit the website for the Center for Disease Control here.