Younger Canadians represent one in three of all reported COVID-19 cases, and experts say they could be unknowingly accelerating the spread of the coronavirus in Canada and around the world.
Younger Canadians represent one in three of all reported COVID-19 cases, and experts say they could be unknowingly accelerating the spread of the virus in Canada and around the world.
Of the 4,186 COVID-19 cases for which the Public Health Agency of Canada has provided epidemiological data, 29 per cent are aged 20 to 39 and four per cent are under 19 — meaning one-third of cases in Canada involve people who are younger than 40.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said Sunday that those under 40 made up about 12 per cent of hospitalized cases.
“This statistic is important because it shows that younger age groups are also experiencing illness severe enough to require hospitalization,” Tam tweeted.
Steven Hoffman, director of the Global Strategy Lab and a global health law professor at York University, said that while the rates of hospitalization and death for younger Canadians are lower than older age groups, they’re not insignificant.
“It’s not even close to zero,” he said. “Twelve per cent is still a significant number that should make any younger person stop and pause to recognize that this represents a threat not only to elder members of our society, but to everyone.”
Hoffman said communicating the risks of dangerous activities to young people who think they’re “invincible” is always a challenge, but the damage in ignoring containment measures like physical distancing and self-isolation can have devastating effects.
“It’s just amplified during a pandemic because usually it’s young people who, in ignoring understanding of risk, are endangering themselves and themselves alone,” he said.
“In this context, young people’s actions also can put other people at risk, especially the more older people that they come in contact with.”
All age groups at risk of COVID-19
Dr. Raywat Deonandan, a global health epidemiologist and an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, said it’s important for younger people to remember we’ve never encountered this new coronavirus, so we’ve built up no immunity to it.
“Everybody is susceptible,” he said. “Everybody.”
Deonandan said a misconception that older age groups are solely susceptible to serious complications from COVID-19 came from early data on China’s cases, which showed elderly people — particularly those who smoked — were more likely to have bad outcomes.
“But by the time it made it to Europe, it was shifti