Why Some People Get Sicker Than Others
COVID-19 is proving to be a disease of uncertainty. According to a study from Italy, 43% of people with the virus have no symptoms. Amongst those who do show symptoms, it’s common to feel congestion, fever, aches, and general malaise. However, “Some people really fall off the cliff, and we don’t have good predictors of who it’s going to happen to,” says Stephen Thomas, the chair of infectious diseases at Upstate University Hospital. Those people will become short of breath, their heart racing and mind detached from reality. Some experience organ failure and spend weeks in the ICU, if they survive at all.
The Atlantic takes a deep dive into how and why this occurs.
