One of the top officials on the White House’s coronavirus task force team warned that reports out of Italy and France suggest the virus is spreading among the younger population.
Dr. Deborah Birx told reporters at a press briefing from the White House on Wednesday that the task force is “concerned” about the news from Europe, which counters the belief that the illness doesn’t greatly affect young people.
“We are concerned about the early reports coming out of Italy and France,” said Birx. “There are concerning reports out of France and Italy about some young people getting seriously ill and getting very ill in the ICUs.”
Her warning came a day after Baylor Dean of Tropical Medicine Peter Hotez said a “significant number of young adults” are “seriously ill” in Italy.
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“We think part of this may be that people heeded the early data coming out of China and coming out of South Korea that the elderly or those with preexisting medical conditions were at particular risk,” added Birx.
She noted that the millennial generation, which encompasses people between the ages of 25 and 39, could unknowingly be COVID-19 carriers, creating a situation in which the illness can easily pass on to older people. She stressed that the data is still developing and that there has been “no significant mortality in the children.”
The novel coronavirus has infected over 200,000 people worldwide, and more than 80,000 people across the globe have recovered since the outbreak began in late December in Wuhan, China.
