Dismal news from the Minnesota wing of the American pandemic ward: our youngest death so far.
Minnesota has reported its first COVID-19 death in a child amid a rise in cases of the infectious disease among children and young adults.
The death of a 9-month-old baby from Clay County is one of the youngest reported in the U.S. in the pandemic.
The child had no underlying health conditions and was not hospitalized. State Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm described it as an “isolated incident related to this infant’s very specific situation.”
Details and lab samples are being sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further investigation of why this infant died with an infectious disease that has taken a much harsher toll on the elderly. Of the 1,545 COVID-19 deaths so far in the pandemic in Minnesota, two have involved people in the 20 to 29 age range. But none until now had involved anyone 19 or younger.
We also added 922 new reported cases on Monday, the highest single-day total since the start of the pandemic. Stevens County, where I’m located, is holding steady at a total of 13 cases, but we’re less than a month away from a big influx of students. Maybe we’ll set some more records! How exciting!
I need to add one other detail to our situation. Relatively few young people are dying of COVID-19 around here, but one of the features of the rural landscape is that every town has an aging population and features at least one retirement home. Morris has four: Skyview Plaza, Skyview Court, West Wind Village, and Prairie Community Services. That’s where the pandemic will hit hardest, and that got me wondering. I’ve been selfish and worrying about what will happen to staff and students when classes resume, but will the university close down if the old folks start dying?
Too bad Republicans only care about babies before they’re born.
it is news like this along with the dismal response to this latest pandemic leaves me with the feeling that I and many close to me will likely not make it through to the other side.
I kind of want to sing the old Woody Guthrie song “so long it’s been good to know you”
uncle frogy
I’m not an epidemiologist, and no, I don’t play one on the TV. But, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it statistically incredibly unlikely for a bug like Covid to first infect everyone on the planet, and then kill them all? Even thinking of a worst case scenario like this is repugnant of course, but won’t some peeps have a natural immunity to this bitch?
So, given the horrible failure of our elected shit-heads to deal with this in a rational fashion and the equally horrible failure of a large portion of the population to understand and take the situation seriously, some will survive. The world as we knew it won’t survive. But some humans will. It’s damned near inevitable.
Of course we hope it won’t come to this.
Holy shit PZ – you stay very safe now.
Sour grapes here: Sorry to see my post got lost. No worries, I won’t waste my time again.
Bye PZ! Enjoy the life!!