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One popular myth about Covid-19 is this: young adults are safer and only people over 65 have to worry about getting seriously ill or dying from it.
That myth is being blown out of the water. More young adults are being admitted to hospitals with coronavirus than at any other time in the pandemic.
Look at Michigan, for example. Its hospitals are now admitting about twice as many Covid-19 patients in their 30s and 40s than they were during the fall peak. This is according to the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.
And across Michigan, doctors are increasingly reporting a concerning trend. . .younger people are coming in more often with serious cases of Covid-19.
The director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, did warn that this could happen with the young adult population.
One reason is that the B.1.1.7 variant — first identified in Britain and now the most common source of new infection in the U.S. — is believed to be about 60% more contagious and 67% more deadly than the original form of the virus.
The second reason is many young adults still have not gotten vaccinated. We still have only one-third of all adult Americans fully vaccinated.
I’m fully vaccinated. What about you? Think about your family. Let me borrow the Nike slogan: just do it.
The Big News
India’s Covid Tragedy
India now accounts for nearly half of all new Covid cases in the world. Indian officials reported nearly 350,000 new infections on Saturday. That’s a world record. Its hospitals are unbearably full, oxygen supplies are dangerously low and people are dying in line waiting to see doctors. The sudden surge in recent weeks has cast doubt on India’s official Covid-19 death toll of nearly 200,000. Reports from cremation grounds suggest a far higher number.
Long Covid Sufferers Face Worrisome Health Risks
The health effects of Covid-19 appear to increase the risk of death and chronic medical conditions. Even in people who were never sick enough to be hospitalized. This was the finding of a large new study published Thursday in the journal Nature.
Researchers looked at medical records of more than 73,000 people across the U.S. whose coronavirus infections did not require hospitalization. Between one and six months after becoming infected, those patients had a significantly greater risk of death — 60% higher — than people who had not been infected with the virus. The research also found that non-hospitalized Covid survivors had a 20% greater chance of needing outpatient medical care over those six months than people who had not contracted the virus.
Vaccinated US Travelers Welcome in Europe
American tourists who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to visit the European Union over the summer. This is what Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said Sunday in an interview with The New York Times. This comes more than a year after shutting down nonessential travel from most countries to limit the spread of the coronavirus in Europe.
Covid Vaccines Out of Reach for Much of the World
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report saying Covid-19 vaccines remain out of reach in the poorest countries. “Nearly 900 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, but over 81% have gone to high- or upper middle-income countries, while low-income countries have received just 0.3%,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Biden Administration Largely Writing Off JNJ Vaccine
The Biden administration has largely written off the J&J Covid-19 vaccine. J&J was one of the government’s first and biggest bets in the coronavirus vaccine race. But the company has faced an unrelenting series of setbacks. These include a contractor mix-up that ruined 15 million doses. And of course, concerns that the vaccine may be linked to recent reports of rare, severe blood clots.
The Coronavirus Numbers
We have passed the one million mark for vaccines given globally. Here are the numbers from Monday at 8 a.m. from Johns Hopkins University:
- 147,266,287 Infected Worldwide
- 1,006,220,480 Vaccines Given Globally
- 3,111,247 Deaths
- 32,077,569 Infected in the U.S.
- 228,661,408 U.S. Vaccine Doses Administered
- 572,200 Deaths in the U.S.
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What’s Next
There is not a lot of direction in the markets this morning. We’re in a holding pattern for the moment. Wall Street closed higher on Friday to end a very choppy week basically flat.
Earnings this week should be important. A number of the largest growth and momentum names are on the calendar. A Fed meeting this week should pass off without too much fanfare. The dollar is staying a little softer, with the euro hitting its strongest since the start of March. Yields are keeping quiet too, helping gold maintain a bullish bias.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is due to release first-quarter 2021 results today after the closing bell. It kicks off a mammoth week for big tech/growth/momentum earnings.
Consensus estimates for Tesla indicate earnings per share (EPS) of $0.79 on revenues of $9.92 billion. Earlier this month Tesla reported record Q1 sales, delivering 184,800 vehicles. That was more than double the 88,400 reported last year and about 10,000 ahead of expectations.
The addition of Bitcoin to the Tesla balance sheet this year may have been a bad omen. The stock is down around 15% since the SEC filing on Feb 8. It has recovered about 30% though since hitting a low around $560 at the start of March. On Friday, it closed at $729.
Meanwhile, one global crypto exchange is about to go public. Go here for urgent crypto Pre-IPO details.
Yours in Health & Wealth,
Tony Daltorio