Quote:
Originally Posted by BWillie
Why would it be bad in Africa? Africa has by far the youngest median age population in the world. They are actually probably in the best shape and very few of them are overweight. India also has a relatively young population, especially compared to Italy, and even that of the US.
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There is a huge misconception about how this works.
Yes, children under the age of 15 or so do appear to be fine without treatment.
But once you get over 20 and even more so after 30, a significant percentage will develop serious pneumonia and will die without intensive medical treatment that is often lasting up to 3 weeks.
However, those under 50 that get intensive treatment usually make good recovery.
In both Wuhan and now in Italy the death rate for the younger patients went up as hospitals were overwhelmed.
So the younger population will help a lot, no doubt about it. But there are many millions living in slums and not all of them are under 20. Without the ICU care I think they are likely to have a much higher death rate than has been seen so far.
And they aren't overweight but many are malnourished and are already suffering from other chronic diseases.