Despite COVID-19 cases once again climbing in the U.S., the death rate remains largely unchanged from where it was before the resurgence, and may actually still be declining.
There are a few reasons for that, Axios reports. And a big part of it may be that at the present moment, a larger proportion of confirmed coronavirus cases are among younger people who may be able to fend off infections better than older generations.
"The increases that we're seeing serve as a warning that young adults and youth are not immune to COVID-19," Dr. Brannon Traxler of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control told the New York Times. "They also tell us that younger South Carolinians are not taking social distancing seriously."
While it's easy to blame personal choice for the resurgence in party-going youngsters, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster began lifting lockdown restrictions in the middle of May, and some stores were never required to close, CNN reports — meaning many of the people who got sick could have been forced back to work and gotten sick as a result.
Regardless of how they got sick, Axios reports that these new coronavirus patients could readily infect their older relatives, resulting in a potential increase in the death toll. And that may happen soon anyway, Dr. Anthony Fauci warns.
"The death rate always lags several weeks behind the infection rate," Fauci told Axios.
He added that "[younger people] get infected first, then they come home, and then they infect the older people. The older people get the complications, and then they go to the hospitals."
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READ MORE: U.S. coronavirus cases are increasing, but deaths aren't — yet [Axios]
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