Young people in hard-hit states are increasingly testing positive for the coronavirus, a new development in the pandemic with implications that public health officials do not yet fully understand.
“Demographically, you’re looking at a large number of younger people who are testing positive for COVID-19,” said Dr. Angela Clendenin, an epidemiology professor at Texas A&M University. “And they’re going out and doing their grocery shopping and hanging out with friends because they really are unaware of the fact that there they are possible transmitters of COVID-19.”
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The number of cases in Texas has surpassed 120,370. Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott attributed the daily increase in new cases to young people going to “bar-type settings,” adding Monday that the fierce viral spread in Texas is “unacceptable” and “must be corralled.”
Though the younger population usually experiences more mild COVID-19 infection, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Tuesday that young people are not immune to severe forms of the disease.
“To think young people have no deleterious consequences is not true,” he said before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “We’re seeing more and more complications in young people.”
Dr. Clendenin added that asymptomatic spread among younger people is driving the current outbreak across all age groups.
“If you think it’s just bad allergies, you don’t stop your life, and you’re just trying to go about your business,” Clendenin told the Washington Examiner. “People, particularly the younger population, are unaware that they’re carrying COVID until they realize the allergies aren’t going away.”
Florida has seen a similar jump in cases in the younger population. Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that “what we’ve seen, particularly over the last week, is a real explosion in new cases amongst our younger demographics.”
DeSantis was joined at his Tuesday press briefing by Dr. Sunil Desai, president of the Orlando Health Medical Group, who said, “The population is skewing a little younger… the acuity is less. A lot less folks requiring mechanical ventilation or the severe presentation of COVID.”
DeSantis and other governors have, for many weeks, attributed upticks in new coronavirus diagnoses to wider testing capacity, which Clendenin said is not the case.
“People are trying to explain an increase in cases with a singular reason,” Clendenin said. “You might be able to say there’s a correlation between the two but not causation. Unfortunately, the increase in new cases daily is higher than the increase in testing and new positive tests.”
States have so far resisted slowing down reopening procedures, despite the uptick in new cases. For instance, Abbott said that shutting the state down again “will always be the last option.” DeSantis said in a press briefing last week that the state will continue to reopen businesses. Thirty-two states have lifted most restrictions on businesses and gatherings, with some states leaving in place a few restrictions on personal care businesses and live concert venues. While more people are now venturing out of their homes, eager to return to normal life, Clendenin said the uptick in cases is not attributable to reopening states too early.
“Every state had a plan. But it’s like we’re in a building with doors, and we’re going to open it a crack, and if it looks safe outside, we’ll open it up a little bit more,” she said. “But unfortunately, as a society, as soon as that door is cracked, everybody shoves through it.”
The largest group of people who experience severe coronavirus infection are the elderly. If a younger person is diagnosed with the disease, he or she will likely experience a milder form of the virus and recover quickly. Younger people who are symptomatic, however, can easily transmit the virus to those in the more vulnerable population.
Fauci said Tuesday that young people have a responsibility to take precautions and follow social distancing protocol.
“Even though the overwhelming majority of them do well [in recovery], what you can forget is that if you get infected and spread the infection, even though you do not get sick, you are part of the process of the dynamics of an outbreak,” Fauci said.
He added that “it’s too early” to conclude that the decline in new daily deaths is due to healthy young people contracting mild forms of COVID-19 and surviving, adding that “deaths always lag considerably behind cases.”
“You might remember that at the time that New York was in their worst situation, where the deaths were going up, and yet, the cases were starting to go down. The deaths only came down multiple weeks later,” Fauci said. “So, you’re seeing more cases now while the deaths are going down.”
“The concern is if those cases then infect people who wind up getting sick and go to the hospital, it is conceivable you may see the deaths going up, so I think it’s too early to say because the deaths are going down,” Fauci added.
As of Tuesday, the number of COVID-19 cases has surpassed 2.3 million, and over 120,700 deaths have been reported.
