N.H. health officials need to stop fiddling around and release COVID-19 age metrics

Younger people, who have of late been vilified as reckless carriers of COVID-19 - often shown on TV news congregating on basketball courts and beaches - have a right to be outraged now that it appears some medical experts characterized the disease as an old person's problem early on, one they would not likely be affected by.

Now by looking at age charts coming out of Maine and Massachusetts it's obvious that this pandemic can take out anyone at any age.

From babies to NBA basketball stars in the prime of life, this disease has proved a daunting and deadly health menace.

The need to release the age-group information was underscored on Thursday by comments made by Catholic Medical Center's Chief Medical Officer who said younger people are getting the coronavirus just like older people. Dr. Keith Stahl made the comments on WGIR's New Hampshire Today with Jack Heath.

"They are getting it, that's always been the case," said Dr. Stahl. "We didn't talk about it because we wanted to focus more on the older folk. But yes if you're younger you can get it, and you can die from it. There are fatalities in younger people."

Some young people in the Rochester area have expressed distress to The Rochester Voice that they were not informed of the severity the coronavirus posed to their age group, saying they were led to believe early on that they were somehow less likely to be impacted by the virus, that this was an "old folks" problem.

This may have led them to believe that social distancing among those of their own age group carried few risks, they say.

The young people The Rochester Voice spoke with did not wished to be identified for this story.

So why is it that some in the medical profession failed to impress upon young people in their teens, 20s and 30s that they were at risk.

And why did New Hampshire CDC represent the most recent Granite State death from the virus as simply "under 60."

The public doesn't need to be manipulated into some way of thinking.

Were they afraid letting young folks know the risks would drive up the demand on PPE like masks?

What was their thought process to minimize young folk's risk, if they knew about it all along?

To prove the young are at dire risk, too, is illustrated in the Maine age metrics chart in this column. It shows Mainers and Americans of all ages are at risk.

Americans don't like to be played.

Release the age metrics, New Hampshire.