Oldest Known COVID-19 Survivor – 104 Year World War II Veteran – April 2, 2020

I saw this yesterday – https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-veteran-oldest-survivor-coronavirus/. There are a couple of other 100 year survivors – one in Wuhan, China and one in Italy mentioned in the article. Happy 104th Belated Birthday Bill Lapschies.

I don’t think this should be taken as proof that you won’t die if you are older. In general, those who are 60+ have a higher likelihood of dying from COVID-19 than people 59 and younger. Certain health conditions also may increase your chances of dying from the virus.

I have also seen young healthy athletes die from COVID-19 that were 25 years old and younger. Yet, I still see younger to middle aged and to a lesser extent older people getting out and ignoring social distancing to play basketball games or do other non-essential activities.

The attitude seems to be if a person is not old enough or doesn’t have a serious health issue, they should not worry. Bad attitude to have as enough people who are not 60+ and without serious health problems have died.

The death rates ranges from 1 – 4.9% in various reports. At some point, we may have a better death rate, but age and other health issues are likely to influence the rates.

Best to maintain social distancing and avoid going out unnecessarily. I avoid large retail chains for the most part because people rarely practice social distancing there.