A study has found that young people hospitalised with Covid-19 remain as much at risk of organ damage as older demographics. This news will undoubtedly be making people nervous with ‘Freedom Day’ now only days away. Most young people with no underlying health conditions have so far only had their first vaccine dose, if any doses at all, so remain at risk of contracting the virus.

Young people have not been prioritised for the vaccine on the basis that deaths remain very low in the demographic, but these findings have highlighted the fact that deaths are not the only metric we should be concerned about.

The numbers

The research, which looked at the first wave of coronavirus in 2020 and included a total of 73,197 adults from across 302 UK hospitals, found that:

‘Younger adults admitted to hospital with Covid are almost as likely to suffer from complications as those over 50 years old. Four in 10 of those between 19 and 49 developed problems with their kidneys, lungs or other organs while treated.

Overall, around half of all adult patients suffered a least one complication during their hospital stay. The most common was a kidney injury, followed by lung and heart damage.’

Dr Annemarie Docherty, a senior clinical lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and a consultant in intensive care medicine, stated that: ‘We do know from other infectious diseases that these sorts of problems with your kidneys or heart can develop into longer-term complications, I think it’s reasonable to expect that this may be the same with Covid-19.’

Focusing on the first wave allowed this study to explore the longer-term impacts of contracting the virus. These findings are dark tidings when we are mere days away from the end of restrictions with many young people still not fully vaccinated.

It is not yet clear how the virus causes this organ damage. It is thought that in some Covid-19 cases the body’s own immune system can spark an inflammatory response and injure healthy tissue, causing the severe organ damage that has been seen in the study.

The organ damage caused by the virus will likely have long-term health implications. In the short term, it makes recovering from the virus much more difficult. The research found that ‘13% of 19 to 29-year-olds and 17% of 30 to 39-year-olds hospitalised with Covid were unable to look after themselves at discharge and had to rely on friends and family.’ This reliance on other people made life tricky during lockdowns, but it unfortunately won’t be any easier once restrictions are lifted. With work from home guidance coming to an end, people will no longer have members of their family or support group at home to look after them.

Living with Covid-19

While some have been suggesting we need to get used to simply living with Covid-19 like we do the flu, the team behind this new research feel this is not the case:

‘The data reinforces the fact that Covid is not flu and we are seeing even young adults coming into hospital suffering significant complications, some of which will require furthering monitoring and potentially further treatment in the future.’

They urge continued caution and recommend people continue to protect themselves from the virus as much as they can. With masks now a question of personal choice and social distancing measures due to be scrapped on Monday, it is down to individuals to decide how much caution they wish to exercise.

They are not alone in suggesting this continued caution – the British Medical Association has advised against the end of mandatory mask-wearing. Senior doctors across the NHS have also warned that this end to the restrictions will have ‘potentially devastating consequences.’

Long Covid and lasting impacts

Paul Godfrey, from Frinton in Essex, was 31 when he developed Covid in March of last year. Nearly 18 months later he is still suffering from the effects of the virus. Paul was one of the people included in the study and suffered from the partial collapse of both lungs. He described covid as ‘the worst experience of [his] life’ and ‘continues to suffer from extreme fatigue and breathlessness’.

It would be nice to be able to report that Paul Godfrey’s experience was an isolated or anomalous incident, but the data from the study proved that these types of experiences are worryingly common among young people who are admitted to hospital with covid. Other patients have been left with lesions on their lungs, damage to other organs, and continued fatigue and breathing problems for a long time after the main infection ends.

Long Covid is something many of us have heard of but thankfully have not experienced for ourselves. Given the timescale of the pandemic, research into long Covid is only now beginning to emerge and yielding staggering results:

‘The largest ever international study of people with long Covid has identified more than 200 symptoms and prompted researchers to call for a national screening programme. The study found the myriad symptoms of long Covid – from brain fog and hallucinations to tremors and tinnitus – spanned 10 of the body’s organ systems, and a third of the symptoms continued to affect patients for at least six months.’ 

These lasting effects of the virus – from long covid to the organ damage involved in causing it – showcase why it is absolutely vital that people continue to get vaccinated and exercise caution wherever possible.

Conclusion

Young people are not as safe from the virus as they were once believed to be. Though the number of deaths in younger demographics may be less, the lasting impacts of the virus remain no less severe.

The resounding message of this research is that ‘this is not just a disease of the elderly and frail’, and its publication will hopefully make young people proceed with caution as we head out of restrictions on Monday.

About the Author: Leo Hynett

Leo Hynett is a contributing Features Writer, with a particular interest in Culture, the Arts and LGBTQ+ Politics.