Outrageous claims require outrageous proofs, you need to volunteer your sources if you want to convince anybody that 55 and younger are large share of deaths.
"From what I have heard" is not an outrageous proof on HN.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-se...
Unfortunately, I'm unable to find good global statistics on absolute number of deaths broken down per age group.
I have come across the claim I mentioned in response to a claim that young people almost never die from this. That is simply not true: young people do die, but it looks like half is indeed an exaggeration. Even so, the claim that it's in the double digits is also false; in the US, 610 people under 44 have died[0]. Claims that young people are perfectly safe are dangerous, even if the danger is a lot higher for older people.
[0] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-se...
But you do realise over 120 THOUSAND died in the US in total. 610 out of 120,000+ is a mere half percent.
You are incorrect. COVID is largely a disease that affects the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. Here are the actual numbers from England (England only, not to be confused with the overall UK):
- All COVID deaths, age 0-59: 2,210
- All COVID deaths, age 60+: 25,721
And of those 2,210 people under 60 who died, only 261 didn't have known pre-existing conditions.
Also, the older age groups are actually smaller populations than the younger age groups. So the death rate is even higher than the raw numbers suggest.
If you define "young" as anyone under 40, the difference is even more stark:
- All COVID deaths, age 0-39: 224
- All COVID deaths, age 0-39, no pre-existing condition: 36
Note: Obviously the young and healthy should still avoid exposure to avoid infecting others and also because there is of course always some risk of both death and long-term damage.
My point is merely: don't think you're immune just because you're young. More young people have died from this than most people think.
15 - 44 = 27
45 - 64 = 589
75 - 84 = 1356
85 + = 1761
If you are under 40 your risk of dying seems to be very very low.
Based on the figures you provided I make that close to 0.7%. It is low but I wouldn't describe it as very very low :-)
The populations of those are ranges are different sizes. There are many fewer people alive who are in the 85+ group than there are in the 15-44 group. So if you work that out based on the relative population sizes, you'll get a much lower death rate for the under 40 group.
South Korea: 5539, deaths = 5 = 0.09%
Switzerland: 8874, deaths = 5 = 0.05%
Italy: 37139, deaths = 84 = 0.22%
Netherlands: 8207, deaths = 14 = 0.17%
This is from wikipedia for the respective countries, some countries figures are more up to date than others.
But even if you don't know anyone who died from it, you can still know people who are ill. My ex-brother-in-law has been in and out of the hospital 4 times for COVID-19.
In many countries, old people are less likely to get infected, because those countries take special effort to protect old people. Some countries didn't or messed up, which has lead to massacres in elderly care homes.
Though the real big risk here is: it's possible to carry the virus without having any symptoms. So you can transmit it to other people without ever realising.