Age and Existing Conditions of Fatalities

In the following charts we investigate what are commonly believed to be the most influential axes of the coronavirus: Age and Chronic Conditions. 

For age we have total deaths as a percentage of the state’s population by age group. From this we can see the portion of each age group that has passed away due to the coronavirus.

As of August 8, 2020, most of the people who have passed away due to the coronavirus are those in the senior age groups. We can see that more than three fourths are above 65 years and roughly one in ten are below 50. 

Unfortunately, we do not have statistics on infections by age, otherwise we could narrow down the virus characteristics more accurately. We can reasonably assume that one or more of the following is true; the older among the population are more likely to contract the virus and thus represent more deaths, or this virus is more lethal as we age and a disproportionate number of elderly have succumbed.

For chronic conditions we have number of deaths due to coronavirus where the person had a comorbidity, did not have a comorbidity, or may or may not have had a comorbidity. A majority of people who died from the corona had a pre-existing comorbidity or chronic illness, including at least one of the following: cardiovascular disease, chronic liver disease, chronic lung disease, chronic renal disease, currently pregnant, diabetes mellitus, ICU, immunocompromised, neurologic/neurodevelopmental, smokers, and other chronic diseases. 

Again, we also do not know how many of those infected have pre-existing conditions, preventing us from reading into their susceptibility to contracting the virus. However, if we assume that having a comorbidity does not make a person more likely to contract the virus, we can reasonably conclude that it does make them more likely to succumb to the virus.

Photo of an undetermined Georgia Tech home game during the 1918 college football season. That's when the sport was hit by the Spanish flu and the end of World War I.

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