Young Americans die in historic numbers due to COVID-19

• Although older people are at higher risk for serious illness and death from COVID-19, the deaths of young Americans have died in record numbers.
• Between March 1 and July 31, 12,000 more Americans between the ages of 25 and 44 die than would normally be expected. About 40% of the deaths were directly due to COVID-19.
• Two families whose 21-year-old boys died of COVID-19 describe how quickly and severely the young men became ill.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Anna Boyer-Killion holds her son, Bryant, as he stops breathing.

The 21-year-old woke up his family in the middle of the night on December 19 at their home in Champaign, Illinois. He could not get his asthma under control and asked to go to hospital. But before they could leave, he had a cardiac arrest.

“He wrapped his arms around me and he died in my arms,” ​​Boyer-Killion told Business Insider.

Boyer had previously been hospitalized for chronic asthma, but the coronavirus exacerbated his condition. His mother started CPR after calling 911, and EMTs were able to bring Bryant to the hospital. But he was pronounced dead there on December 21.

“He could always recover and it just wasn’t the same,” Bryant’s aunt, Sarah Boyer, said.

Thanks to Sarah Boyer

Bryant was by no means the only young American to die of COVID-19 in the past year.

A December study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that nearly 40% of excess deaths among Americans between the ages of 25 and 44 were from March to July due to COVID-19. Nearly 12,000 more people in the age group died during the five months than would be expected based on historical data. Of these, 4,535 deaths were caused directly by COVID-19.

In the past few months alone, six children in Northridge, California, have lost their 30-year-old mother to COVID-19. A 33-year-old Detroit mother died days after giving birth to a son she never got hold of. A 28-year-old father of two has died in hospital after 84 days. A man lost his 34-year-old wife after she contracted the coronavirus that gave birth to their daughter in a hospital.

Most of these young adults did not have an existing condition like Bryant. It has become increasingly clear that being young does not mean that you are safe from the worst effects of the virus.

‘It got him down’

Thanks to Lea Ann Lyster

Kevin Lyster works as a police officer at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. When he tested positive for COVID-19, his son, Cody, was in the spring of Colorado Mesa University. Kevin was isolated in their home in Aurora, but shortly thereafter, Cody developed a cough and 104 degrees of fever.

Cody was taken to the hospital on March 30. It was the last time his parents and sister saw him in person alive.

“He was a perfectly healthy, 21-year-old college athlete who did everything he could to stay healthy and that brought him down,” Kevin said.

Cody, who played baseball, died on April 8 in a fan in the ICU. His parents communicated with their son for the last time via a Facebook Live stream held by Lyster’s hospital bed.

“We could see Cody and tell him we were thinking of him,” his father said. “And little did we know he would succeed in a few hours.”

Cody was in a medically induced coma at the time.

“They say he could not hear us,” Kevin said, but he added: “I tend to disagree, I think he heard everything we said.”

Young Americans die at above-average rates

According to the CDC, the chance that someone 65 or older is 90 times stronger due to the coronavirus than someone between the ages of 20 and 29. From May to August, 78% of coronavirus deaths were people aged 65 years or older.

But this narrative, which has become almost common knowledge, hides another truth: that COVID-19 admitted and killed unprecedented numbers of young Americans in the hospital.

“My son is proof of that,” Kevin Lyster said.

Thanks to Lea Ann Lyster

A September study found that more than 3,300 Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 were hospitalized with COVID-19 from April to June, and that 21% needed intensive care. About 3% died.

Jeremy Faust, lead author of the December study and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, found that in July alone – a particularly deadly month for the 25-44 age group – more than 16,000 people died in the demographic. That’s about 5,000 more people than the average in July over the past two decades. Weekly mortality rates were almost 50% higher than the average of the five July before.

Overall in 2020, according to Faust, historical data indicates that approximately 154,000 Americans between the ages of 25 and 44 would die. But the numbers his team calculated showed the death toll in early December was more than 165,000. And that didn’t even include the last few weeks of the year.

After taking the additional lethal weeks into account, Faust estimates, “170,000 is a low estimate of the ball, and 175,000 seems like a very reasonable number.”

A majority of the young adults who died were coloreds, he said.

Maria Alejandra Cardona / File Photo via Reuters

A comparison of weekly deaths during 2020 also shows the strong increase. Last year, between 2,500 and 2,900 people in the age group of young adults usually died per week.

“This year we have not seen a weekly average number below 3,000 since March 14. It is nut,” Faust said.

“An increase in deaths usually does not decrease with the younger, healthier population,” he added. “It is extremely unusual for this to happen.”

Faust’s data undermines the prevailing wisdom that COVID-19 is relatively harmless to younger people.

“We are not stopping the message, but changing it,” he said. Faust believes that young people should be informed that they are also in danger, and that essential workers in the front line should be better protected.

Bryant Boyer-Killion dies during deadliest month of pandemic to date

December was the deadliest month of the pandemic to date. More than 65,000 people in the U.S. died of COVID-19 last month. The U.S. has seen an increase in hospitalizations and cases, in part through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hospitalizations jumped from almost 99,000 to more than 125,000 between 1 and 31 December – an increase of 27%. Six million Americans became ill during that time.

Thanks to Sarah Boyer.

Bryant Boyer-Killion’s aunt said it was frustrating to see so many Americans travel and gather as the pandemic worsens.

“It’s hard to see people who seemingly do not want to give a little, you know, while you are grieving,” Boyer said.

Bryant worked as a security guard at Carle Foundation Hospital, where he was born. This put him in the vaccine line early: he would get the first shot on December 22, the day after he died.

‘You may not care if you get it, but you can give it to someone else who cannot fight it. And my son is an example of that, ‘said Anna Boyer-Killion.

Anna believes Bryant contracted the coronavirus at work, and wishes the hospital tested employees more frequently. Her son knew his job was a risk, she said, but “he always stood tall and tried to convince me he was not scared.”

Bryant cared so much about his work that he spent his 21st birthday in April on a 12-hour shift. Anna said he always acted like this: After Bryant’s father, John Killion, had a workplace accident in 2015, Bryant began helping take care of his little sister, Riley.

A tattoo on his arm reads: ‘my sister’s protector’.

Thanks to Sarah Boyer

Bryant’s family buried him the day after Christmas.

Anna says days after his death, she tried not to close her eyes because she would see him die in her arms.

“He was everything to me,” she said.

Coronavirus is the leading cause of death in the US

Since November 1, the coronavirus has become and surpassed the leading cause of death in the US

heart disease
and cancer, according to a recent analysis. More than 4,000 Americans died on COVID-19 on Thursday – another record.

Thanks to Lea Ann Lyster

But Kevin Lyster said he is not sure his son’s friends will find that they are not invincible. Last month, he said, he heard that one of Cody’s friends wanted to have a New Year’s Eve party.

‘I’m like’ did you get nothing out of this? ‘, Kevin said.

About 366,000 people have died in the US since the beginning of the pandemic, though it is almost certainly a countdown. According to one projection, by April 1, the virus could kill more than 200,000 people in the United States.

More than nine months after Cody’s death, his parents and younger sister, Sierra, are still struggling with his absence.

“He brought this house to life,” Kevin said.

Cody helped Sierra’s youth softball team, and he spent his Sundays in college at the Roice-Hurst Humane Society.

Thanks to Lea Ann Lyster

“We did not even know he did it until we received a condolence card from Roice-Hurst,” Kevin said, adding, “he was out there to make the world a better place for no recognition. not.”

The holiday intensified the Lysters’ sadness.

Cody was a forerunner of Christmas traditions – he and Sierra always exchanged the first gifts of the family on Christmas Eve, his mother Lea Ann said. Cody had the ability to guess what his gifts were, she added, so the family would take extreme measures to keep Cody on his toes by designing scavenger hunts and converting gift tags.

“He put the magic into Christmas,” says Lea Ann, adding, “Don’t take the time you have with your loved ones for granted.”

She and Kevin made sure Sierra has another gift from Cody under the tree this year.