White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Debbie Birx for a second time this week encouraged the millennial generation to be vigilant in social distancing as she expressed concerns over reports from France and Italy that some young people are becoming “very seriously ill” due to the CCP virus.
Birx did not provide further details about the data pertaining to the two countries.
“We think part of this may be that people heeded the early data coming out of China and coming out of South Korea that the elderly or those with preexisting medical conditions were at particular risk,” she continued.
Birx, a physician and ambassador, suggested that because there were high numbers of millennials becoming infected, a notable number of severe cases are arising even though only a small proportion in the age group faces severe infections.
“There may be a disproportionate number of infections among that group, and so even if it’s a rare occurrence, it may be seen more frequently in that group and be evident now,” she said.
“We have not seen any significant mortality in children but we are concerned about the early reports coming out of Italy and France,” Birx said. “I’m going to call out that generation [the millennial generation] ... we need them to be healthy.”
She urged the millennial generation to practice social distancing to lessen the chance of becoming exposed to the CCP virus.
Birx said: “We cannot have these large gatherings that continue to occur throughout the country for people who are off work to then be socializing in large groups and spreading the virus. You have the potential then to spread it to someone who does have a condition that none of us knew about and cause them to have a disastrous outcome.”
In France, the country’s top health official Jerome Salomon recently said that more than half of infected patients who are in intensive care in France are those aged younger than 60.
On Monday, Salomon said that people did not appear to heed official advice from the French government to stay at home.
“The idea that this is a disease that causes death in older people, we need to be very, very careful with,” he said, adding that close to 20 percent of deaths in South Korea happened in those under 60.
“Physicians again in Italy will attest to this, and in Korea. This isn’t just a disease of the elderly. There is no question that younger, healthier people experience an overall less serious disease. But a significant number of otherwise healthy adults can develop a more severe form of the disease,” Ryan added.
