Youth is Not Immune to COVID-19

"[I immediately started feeling under the weather and remained at home once getting back [from Florida]."
"I had a climbing fever, severe body aches, the most intense sweats and chills, and was completely congested. I was unable to sleep for longer than 30 minutes at a time due to difficulty breathing and the amount of pain I was experiencing. I felt dizzy and disorientated like this for 48 hours."
"The best thing we can do is stay home and distance ourselves from contact with as many people as possible. I urge you to stay home regardless if you are experiencing symptoms. You are risking your life and the lives of others should you choose to go outside."
"I hope you will take my story as a cautionary tale and remember to keep being safe healthy and practice social distancing to the fullest extent."
David Anzarouth, 25, Toronto

The Winter Party Festival in Miami made headlines this week after one of the roughly 10,000 attendees tested positive for COVID-19. In an unfortunate update, several other party-goers have also tested positive for the virus.

"This disease, it can affect everybody."
"We're certainly seeing that there are some percentage of people, even in their 20s, who are getting severe disease when we look at other jurisdictions."
"Younger children, by and large, seem to get mild disease, although there is a small chance of more severe disease. As you get older, the risk of severe disease becomes greater, but certainly, young people and middle-aged people should not be complacent."
"It's not just about protecting ourselves. There are many people in our communities who, because of age or their underlying health issues, are most vulnerable to severe disease."
"We also have to think about how we are protecting them as well with all of the things we are talking about, whether it's handwashing, social distancing, staying away, maybe dropping off food on the doorstep to support them, but not coming in close contact."
Dr.Robert Strang, chief officer of health, Nova Scotia

"People underestimate this."
"Modelling suggests that the impact of distancing among low-risk people is more important to decrease transmission than its impact for high-risk people [who move around less]."
Dr.Sanjat Kanjilal, infectious disease physician, Massachusetts General Hospital

David Anzarouth, a 'cautionary tale' for social distancing. (Submitted/David Anzarouth)

With the aplomb of the carefree young, David Anzarouth arrived in Miami to get away from winter in Toronto and to have fun at the Winter Party Festival, a week-long LTGBQ event in South Beach, prepared to dance and party. When he arrived back in Toronto on March 11 he wouldn't have suspected that within a day he would be experiencing flu symptoms and a few days later that he would be bedridden. Eventually he checked in to Toronto General Hospital where a test revealed that he had contracted the novel coronavirus.

Young people appear to be feeling pretty confident, with the messaging that the coronavirus hits the elderly and people with underlying health issues; that young people and children don't appear to be at risk, when the facts on the ground are becoming evident that no one is immune to its devastating effects, regardless of health, or age. Some people will simply experience the effects of COVID-19 differently than others; some have mild symptoms, others far more severe. In Canada, according to federal government statistics, 21 percent of cases fall between ages 20 to 39.

In the United States, data released earlier in the week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that close to 40 percent of hospitalizations were with those aged 20 to 44 years of age. Following a surge in new cases, reported The New York Times, it was seen that half of the infections were hitting individuals under 50.

Between Ontario and British Columbia in Canada, 600 cases were reported by Friday, though age-distributed data was not included. Alberta, however, representing one of the only provinces to place data online, reports the majority of its 146 cases to be in the 35-54-age range.

In Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged, a study published in Pediatrics medical journal, found that children were susceptible to the disease, which killed a 14-year-old boy. It was  highlighted by a March study undertaken by a group associated with the Canadian Research Insights Council, that 36 percent of Canadians don't feel threatened by the COVID-19 virus, while the  unperturbed rises to 52 percent among those under age 25.

"This is not consistent with the reality on the ground", emphasized Dr.Strang.

Attendees at the 2015 Winter Party Festival in Miami. (Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)