The only bright side of this pandemic is that COVID-19 affects younger people less than older ones. Actually, The Age is the most important indicator for negative COVID-19 outcomes. Unlike Spanish flu which decimated armies made up largely of young men during World War I and was overwhelmingly composed of healthy people, COVID-19 deaths are significantly higher among those with a long history of living. For context, Spanish flu killed an average of 28-years old.
About 600 Americans were under 18 when COVID-19 became a pandemic. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took a closer look at young people who were hospitalized for COVID-19 in July and August, while the delta variant wave took hold, and largely found that healthy young people continue to mostly evade the worst of COVID-19.
Study found that many young adults who have suffered severe COVID-19 effects had pre-existing health problems. Teenagers are most likely to be obese.
“Among patients aged 12–17 years, 61.4 percent had obesity,” according to the study, “60.5 percent of whom had severe obesity.”
The study looked at six U.S. hospitals—all of them in the American South—and evaluated 915 cases of COVID-19 in adolescents that required hospitalization. While the majority of patients were admitted for COVID-19, some also had other illnesses. The majority of 713 COVID-19-related patients had at least 1 underlying condition. For the teenage cohort—patients at least 12 years of age—the obesity rate was 61.4 percent. Sixty five percent of severe obese patients were found to be at risk. Only one eligible patient had been vaccinated and eleven patients succumbed to their disease.
What this means, of course, is that COVID-19 can be a fatal disease, even for young people—but vaccine status and general health are Very These are important factors. It remains the case that healthy children who do not have underlying health conditions—particularly obesity—are by and large safe from negative COVID-19 health outcomes.
According to the authors of the study, patients suffering from obesity had to receive more and for a longer time than patients who were not obese. The findings of this study are in line with past reports. They highlight obesity’s role as a risk factor for COVID-19 severe illness in adolescents and children.
Promoting healthy eating habits and an active lifestyle among youth is one of the best ways you can prevent obesity. Although exercise isn’t a cure-all, kids who engage in sports and other physical activities are more likely to be healthy. Kids who exercise regularly tend to be healthier than children who sit at their computers all day.
It’s important to perform this reality check—the more healthy and active kids are, the less COVID-19 threatens them—given just how much the lives of young people were upended by pandemic mitigation efforts. To slow down the spread COVID-19, authorities shut down schools and closed extracurricular activities. Young people were instructed to stay indoors. For the first months, even seemingly harmless activities such as playing in the park were banned. Although many sports have been resumed since then, certain colleges would rather see their students abandon them than allow them to continue unassisted.
Those who have rule-making power over young people would be well-advised to consider whether the purported cure is worse than the disease—and whether it actually makes the disease more dangerous for some. Socialization is essential for young people. Young people need to be able to get out and explore the world without their phones. They should not be kept in bedrooms or dormitories for too long.
As the super infectious—though seemingly more mild—omicron variant threatens to force public health officials to re-implement stringent mitigation measures, that’s worth keeping in mind.