On April 1, GSL Director Steven Hoffman was quoted in a CBC News article discussing the fact that Canadians under the age of 40 make up 30% of all COVID-19 cases in Canada and account for 12% of the related hospitalizations.
In the article, Hoffman argued that these figures are too high for comfort and should be a wake-up call for young people who might have thought that this virus is not a danger to them as well. He elaborated, that it is common that younger people might be less risk-averse in other parts of life, but that in those cases they “ are endangering themselves and themselves alone. 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.”
In regards to children (here Canadians 19 and younger), who only make up 4% of cases, Hoffman explained that even if their case numbers aren’t high, they need to be treated the same as any other age group during COVID-19, since they can be asymptomatic carriers:
“There is a reason why school closures are one of the first things that happen in a pandemic. Schools are a place where social networks collide. Young people actually play a disproportionate role in infectious disease spread, and the expectation is that that trend would continue for COVID-19.”
Read the full article here.
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