A 30-year-old Texas man died of the new coronavirus after attending a “COVID-19” party hosted by an infected person, a doctor revealed, underscoring the risk for younger people.
Jane Appleby, medical director at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, said the man thought the virus was a hoax, even though it had so far killed more than 135,000 people in the United States.
“Someone will be diagnosed with the disease, and they will have a party to invite their friends to see if they can beat the disease,” Appleby said in a video broadcast by the US media on Sunday.
“One of the heartbreaking things he said to his nurse was, ‘You know, I think I made a mistake.’
“He thought the disease was a hoax. He thought he was young and invincible and unaffected by the disease.”
Appleby said young patients often don’t realize how sick they are.
“They don’t look really sick. But when you check their oxygen levels and their lab tests, they are really sicker than they seem,” he said, asking people to take risks seriously.
The Trump administration pushed again on Sunday for the reopening of the entire school in the fall, even as resurgent coronavirus infections, many attributed to younger people, and a record increase in Florida cases raise more questions about efforts of the country to calm the disease. .
The United States has by far the highest number of cases and number of deaths in the world.
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