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The Risks of Coronavirus
While Scott Atlas, the new White House science adviser, says “it doesn’t matter if younger, healthier people get infected,” experts say there are still plenty of reasons younger people should be concerned about Covid-19. Even if getting the virus doesn’t result in death, it could still lead to serious symptoms that can linger.
As Derek Thompson reports in The Atlantic:
Covid-19 presents an array of health challenges that are serious, if not imminently fatal. The disease occasionally sends people’s immune system into a frenzy, wreaking havoc on their internal organs. Several studies of asymptomatic patients revealed that more than half of them had lung abnormalities. A March study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that seven to 20 percent of sick patients showed heart damage associated with Covid-19.
The array of symptoms can also linger. There are lots of reports on so-called “long-haulers”—people who are experiencing persistent symptoms from their Covid-19 infections. The New York Times has a good story about the mental health effects of these cases.
