Younger Adults Make Up Big Portion of Coronavirus Hospitalizations in U.S.

Yeah, I think saying "X% of those hospitalized were in age group Y" is deceptive, because it says nothing about the base population distribution. If we just have a disproportionately large or small number of people in age group Y, that's going to directly drive X.

Of course the article's message is still very true: even young people need to stop being idiots when it comes to social gatherings. But it may still be primarily for the sake of others. I kind of wonder if this article is attempting to scare them into being socially-responsible, even if that means using dubious statistical reporting.

I think the article groups 20-54 because some people believe that only older people are much affected by the disease. They picture hospitals filled with the elderly. However, the data shows here that if you visited a US hospital filled with these COVID-19 patients that close to 40% of them would actually be younger people.

The article is not claiming that 20-54 year olds with the disease have a 40% chance requiring hospitalization. The stats quoted also do not show that the 20-44 or 45-54 cohorts have a 20% chance of requiring hospitalization. Instead, it's saying that the 20-54 cohort makes up close to 40% of the people who require hospitalization.

I.e. I think you have the probability conditional backward. It's not P(need hospital|age 20-54) ~= 40%. Instead it's P(age 20-54|need hospital) ~= 40%

The point is that it's not only the elderly who are affected here. They may be most at risk, and most likely to die even with hospitalization, but even younger people get sick enough to require hospitalization, without which the fatality rate of that cohort may rise as well. If we don't "flatten the curve" then adults of all ages may not get the hospitalization they need and start dying.

(edit: corrected age bracket from 20-64 to 20-54)

The reports from China indicated many people got worse over the course of two weeks, after initially feeling better.

... so I would not count on anecdotes until we have more complete data.

Anecdotally from people talking on my local subreddits, very few people are getting testing at all unless they need serious medical attention. People with less severe cases just get sent home. They're only getting tested if they have confirmed contact with someone who tested positive, or recently returned from international travel. I guess that way we can pretend community spread doesn't exist.

The medical treatment that movie stars and NBA players are getting is not representative of the average American's experience.

You won't be hospitalized here unless you have trouble breathing. Tom Hanks was hospitalized because he is Tom Hanks.

Exactly. As of March 18th in Italy 8.3% of healthcare workers are infected and several older doctors have already died. That's bad for everyone in all age groups.