Public Health Workers Adjust Strategy As More Young Adults Are Testing Positive For COVID
Since the beginning, public health officials have struggled to get young adults to take the pandemic seriously, since the older populations have experienced much more severe outcomes to the illness. But recent spikes in many states are proving that anyone is susceptible to getting sick.
NPR:
As More Young Adults Catch Coronavirus, Can Public Health Messages Adapt?
As much of the country presses forward with reopening, a growing number of cities and states are finding that the coronavirus outbreak now has a foothold in a younger slice of the population, with people in their 20s and 30s accounting for a larger share of new coronavirus infections. The demographic shift has emerged in regions with different populations and political approaches to the pandemic – from Washington state and California to Florida and Texas. North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin and Colorado also all report clusters that have a larger proportion of young adults than they had previously seen. (Stone, 6/19)
The Hill:
Young People Drive New Coronavirus Spikes
The rising number of COVID-19 cases in states across the country is due in large part to more young people contracting the virus, raising alarms among public health officials. The spikes suggest young adults are both more likely to hold front-line service jobs that put them at risk and more likely to ignore some of the social distancing practices advised by health experts. (Wilson, 6/20)
Los Angeles Times:
December Deaths Of California Kids Could Be Linked To Coronavirus
A cluster of mysterious deaths, some involving infants and children, is under scrutiny amid questions of whether the novel coronavirus lurked in California months before it was first detected. But eight weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide hunt for undetected early COVID-19 deaths, the effort remains hobbled by bureaucracy and testing limits. Among those awaiting answers is Maribeth Cortez, whose adult son, Jeremiah DeLap, died Jan. 7 in Orange County while visiting his parents. He had been healthy, suffering on a Friday from what he thought was food poisoning, and found dead in bed the following Tuesday, drowned by fluid in his lungs. (St. John and Choi, 6/21)
