Recent data from the Chinese CDC were published in Business Insider today, March 5, 2020

They put some very helpful detail to the trend we reported yesterday, namely that if the overall mortality rate for COVID-19 across the world stands at 3.4%, most of those

deaths are happening in older people and people with significant illnesses.

For age, the news is very, very good for children.

Again, overall mortality rate is 3.4%, but the reality is that this virus causes death almost entirely in older adults.

For all people under 50 years of age, the mortality rate is less than 1%, for children ages 10-19, the youngest group studied, the mortality rate is 0.2%, or one in 500 cases!

You can see the trend visually more dramatically:

A similar trend is seen when it comes to being well if you get this virus.

And the illnesses we are talking about are illnesses of older adults: heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, as well as diabetes and chronic lung disease (which can be seen in children).

People with heart disease face over 10 times the risk of dying from this infection compared to those with no health issues.

Again, healthy people have a mortality rate that is less than 1%.

The picture is once again worth 1,000 words:

BOTTOM LINES

1. As the COVID-19 begins to spread across America, it is vital to know that our children are far, far less likely than older adults to face the ultimate threat from this illness.  They simply experience substantially milder, safer illness from this new coronavirus.
2. At all ages, being healthy helps the COVID-19 illness be like a mild cold rather than a dangerous illness, too.

To your health,
Dr. Arthur Lavin