Death in the shadows, the possible fate of COVID-19 for the younger set. In a piece in the NY Times the authors bemoan the excess deaths from COVID-19. They note:
Young adults are dying at historic rates. In research published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, we found that among U.S. adults ages 25 to 44, from March through the end of July, there were almost 12,000 more deaths than were expected based on historical norms. In fact, July appears to have been the deadliest month among this age group in modern American history. Over the past 20 years, an average of 11,000 young American adults died each July. This year that number swelled to over 16,000. The trends continued this fall. Based on prior trends, around 154,000 in this demographic had been projected to die in 2020. We surpassed that total in mid-November. Even if death rates suddenly return to normal in December — and we know they have not — we would anticipate well over 170,000 deaths among U.S. adults in this demographic by the end of 2020.
We have just posted a Research Report on the long term sequellae from COVID-19. The problem hiding in the shadows is the long term sequellae such as myocarditis. We really do not yet know what the true cause is but based upon past experience and current research a virus like COVID-19 can cause massive systemic immune responses. We see that in immunotherapeutic cases with the cytokine storm phenomenon. In COVID-19, the storm is much more subtle, in the shadows if you will.
The "COVID Storm" is a silent long term killer. In the case of myocarditis, it is a diffuse infiltrate of fibroblasts and their products, as if the whole heart was having a low grade myocardial infarct. The other organs include the kidney, liver, brain, and the list goes on.
Thus younger people should be made aware that this sequellae that may haunt them for their entire life and may very well shorten it. The ER folks see the present, we must also see the pending shadow on long term effects.
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