Just after physicians in Wuhan, China, began reporting new, potentially fatal respiratory disease COVID-19, scientists and officials assured the world that most cases were mild and that the most serious cases occurred in patients with underlying conditions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report released on March 31 corroborated the claim. While the CDC reports 60 percent of adults in the U.S. have a chronic condition, it estimated that 78 percent of patients admitted to the intensive care unit with COVID-19 between Feb. 12 and March 28 had at least one. But of those diagnosed with COVID-19 who weren’t hospitalized, only 27 percent had an underlying condition.
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19, typically enters the body through droplets inhaled into the nose or mouth. From there, these virus-laden drops can go on to infect cells in the airways and lungs as they travel deeper into the respiratory system. In the worst cases, the infection damages the lungs so severely that patients can’t breathe on their own and can die.
