Older people remain most at risk of dying from the new coronavirus disease, COVID 19. The majority of people who get COVID 19 have minor or moderate sickness. But majority does not mean all. So, who else should be concerned about contracting severe, even deadly, cases of COVID 19? It may be months before scientists have enough data to say for sure who, aside from the old, is most at risk and why. But, medical experts have already learned some helpful information from numbers on early cases around the world. In China, 80 percent of COVID 19 deaths were among people in their 60s or older. This alone means some countries face higher percentages of deaths from the disease. Italy has the world’s second oldest population after Japan. Italy has reported more than 80 percent of deaths in the country so far were among those 70 or older. But, the idea that this is purely a disease that causes death in older people we need to be very, very careful with, said Dr. Mike Ryan. He is the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief. Between 10 and 15 percent of people under 50 have moderate to severe infections, he said last week. Young people are not invincible, said the WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove. She noted that more information is needed about the disease in all age groups. Italy reports 25 percent of its confirmed cases are among people ages 19 to 50. In Spain, about 33 percent are under the age of 44. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s first examination of cases found that 29 percent were ages 20 to 44. Then there is the mystery of how the disease affects children. They have made up a small amount of the world’s case counts to date.
