Coronavirus is hard on older people — and scientists aren't sure why.
by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an analysis of 1,023 deaths out of 44,672 confirmed cases diagnosed through Feb. 11 found that 21.9 percent of deaths occurred among patients who were over 80 years old.
This is likely why the coronavirus is having a more severe impact on older adults, which Sheahan said doesn't altogether surprise scientists. Similar patterns emerge every year with the seasonal flu, and researchers have seen the same trend with"If you go back and look at SARS, the overall mortality rate was about 10 percent," Sheahan said."There were around 8,000 cases, and about 800 of those people died.
Murthy said scientists are still unsure why the virus appears to be sparing the very young, but he said it's an active area of research. In otherwise healthy adults, human genetic variation may also play a role in the severity of the disease, according to Sheahan.
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