Man Shares The Coronavirus Symptoms He Felt And How Harsh It Is Despite His Relatively Young Age

The US has reached its deadliest milestone so far with 100 new coronavirus fatalities reported on Monday alone. One in three Americans is now given orders to stay home. Meanwhile, millennials refuse to see the virus as a danger.

But the data tells a different story. The virus isn’t as selective as we’d like to think. In fact, one fifth of 2,500 hospitalized coronavirus patients were between 20 and 44 years old, reports Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A young product designer from Philadelphia has experienced the horror of falling severely ill with pneumonia and coronavirus. In a series of Twitter posts, he recounted the ordeal of desperately trying to get help. “I thought I was dead,” wrote Bradley. Hopefully, the story will serve as a wake-up call for everyone who still feels immune to what’s happening around them.

Michael Head, a global health expert of the Clinical Informatics Research Unit at the University of Southampton, told Bored Panda that Covid-19 poses a real threat to everyone. “Fit and well younger people are being hospitalized with relatively severe COVID-19 illness.”

Even if the majority of younger people tend to get milder symptoms, it doesn’t mean that’s a rule of thumb. Michael explained that “there are young people who are at high risk, for example, those with serious conditions such as cancer or cystic fibrosis.”

Some of these cases end extremely tragically. “For example, we have seen one 18-year old (with serious underlying health conditions) die in the UK from COVID-19.”

The tendency of young adults falling ill has also been observed in Italy. According to Statista, a quarter of 63,297 coronavirus confirmed cases were between the ages of 19 and 50.

Meanwhile, Jérome Salomon, a French health ministry official, said that half of the 400 coronavirus patients treated in Parisian ICUs were younger than 65. The number of Covid-19 cases among such young age groups is particularly concerning.

Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, stated that “the millennial generation is our largest generation, our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades.” If the virus was to hit that portion of society, the consequences would be tragic.

Not only are young people susceptible to catching the virus, but they also carry a huge amount of responsibility. Michael warns that “it is these vulnerable populations that we must protect as much as is possible.” Bear in mind that vulnerable does not always mean elderly; it also includes everyone having a health condition or suppressed immune system.