Under 30 and Covid-19
By Albert B. Kelly
I know I sound like a broken record talking about Covid-19
and infection rates among the young, but I am increasingly alarmed by what I’m
seeing. By young, I am talking about those in their thirties and younger. If we
do nothing else, we need to try and impress upon our youth the need to take his
pandemic deadly serious because right now, I’m not sure that they’re listening.
I say that because with each day that passes, I look at the
number of newly diagnosed cases of Covid-19 and I’m seeing increasingly high
numbers amongst this group. Selecting one day at random last week, of the
roughly three-dozen newly diagnosed cases in my community of Bridgeton, almost
all were thirties and younger with eighteen in their twenties and five in their
teens.
I know that some of us in middle age and beyond will
consider that those in their 30s should be old enough to know better and they
wouldn’t be wrong, but I also know that for every adult in their 30s that’s
gainfully employed and raising a family there are equally as many
thirty-somethings that have the intellectual and emotional bandwidth of young tweens.
Much the same can be said for certain twenty-somethings.
Despite all of this, my one standing request if you have
young people in your circle of friends and family is to take the time to warn
them about the dangers of this pandemic. That doesn’t mean berating them or
scolding them as tempting as that might be, but speaking with them from a place
of caring and concern for their health and that of the people they come in
contact with as they move about the community.
A week ago, I highlighted the alarming development reported
by doctors, namely an increasing number of strokes and blood clots in young
adults with Covid-19. Now the Governor of New York has warned of a new mysterious,
toxic-shock inflammation syndrome with links to the coronavirus that has
claimed the lives of three very young children.
To date, 73 children in that state have this illness which
doctors say is similar to Kawasaki disease which presents as fever, rash,
swelling of the hands and feet, irritation and redness of the whites of the
eyes; swollen lymph glands in the neck, and inflammation of the mouth, lips,
and throat. These children have all tested positive for Covid-19.
Closer to home in Cumberland County 52 of our positive cases
(5%) are in their teens or younger and in Bridgeton, we have almost as many
positive cases under the age of twenty as the rest of the county combined. Part
of why that should be so is purely a matter of demographics and where people
live. But demographics aside, I fear that certain segments of the community
either don’t know the extent of the risks involved with this virus or they underestimate
its lethality.
Not being a scientist, my understanding of this evolving pandemic
is that of a layperson. But taking the thirty-thousand foot view, you can’t
help but come away with the sense that this thing can change and mutate on a
dime. In early March the conventional wisdom was that children and young people
were largely spared the most severe symptoms of this virus by virtue of their
youth. No so much anymore.
It could be that this virus has mutated to some degree and
is now presenting a new set of complications not previously known.
Alternatively, these impacts on the very young might have been there all along
and we’re just now recognizing them and connecting the Covid-19 dots. Understanding
which scenario is true matters because before we know it, decisions will have
to be made about the 2020-2021 school year.
For now though, along with my counterparts and colleagues
throughout government, we’re thinking about how things can be done safely this
summer whether it involves opening more of our small businesses, visiting the
zoo, allowing certain activities in the park during the summer, or doing
routine business in any one of a dozen government offices.
Few things can be done carelessly or casually now;
everything needs to be deliberate and thought out and it is this attention to
detail and insistence on discipline that we’ll need to practice ourselves and impart
to our youth because the price they’ll pay for casual and careless, two things
that characterize that season of life, might well be too high.