Why coronavirus is making young Americans really sick

There’s now emerging evidence that what matters even more than age are preexisting conditions. According to a new report from the CDC published on March 31, 73% of people hospitalized for the novel coronavirus had at least one preexisting condition. Even more striking, 94% of all people who died from the virus had an underlying chronic illness, the most common being diabetes, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease.

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Older people are more likely to have chronic health problems than younger individuals, which contributes to the age skew seen in deaths and severe cases. But according to an April 1 report from Kaiser Health News, there are still 41.4 million U.S. adults under the age of 65 who are at risk of developing a serious Covid-19 infection because of preexisting conditions…

It turns out that many deaths caused by respiratory infections, including influenza, are a result of damage to the heart, not the lungs, and Covid-19 appears to be no different. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that among people hospitalized for the coronavirus, those with high levels of a protein called troponin — a sign of heart muscle damage — had a 61% death rate compared to a 9% death rate in people with normal troponin levels, regardless of underlying cardiovascular problems.

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