---
title: "COVID-19 Deaths May Have Slowed Because Younger People Are Sick"
description: "COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. remain low even as the virus resurges in the country. But Dr. Fauci warns it may be a temporary lull."
date: "2020-06-22"
modified: "2020-06-22"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/covid19-deaths-young-people-sick"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "health"
---

# COVID-19 Deaths May Have Slowed Because Younger People Are Sick

![The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. remains low even as the virus resurges in the country. But Dr. Fauci warns it may be a temporary lull.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/covid19-deaths-slowed-younger-people-sick.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Images via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

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](<https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-cases-deaths-young-adults-c5a51f4f-65b5-4c35-90fb-8891b63ee022.html>)*[ reports](<https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-cases-deaths-young-adults-c5a51f4f-65b5-4c35-90fb-8891b63ee022.html>). And a big part of it may be that at the present moment, a larger proportion of confirmed coronavirus cases are [among younger people](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/pandemic-students-back-years>) 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*](<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/20/world/coronavirus-updates.html#link-2204ff25>). "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](<https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-coronavirus-trnd/>)*[ reports](<https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/us/states-reopen-coronavirus-trnd/>) — 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."

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)