Younger adults

Adults aged 20 to 49 appear to have driven the COVID-19 resurgence in the U.S. from August through October 2020, likely because of changes in behavior and mobility, according to a Science study. Using cell phone mobility data from 10 million people, as well as state case and death counts, researchers found that the estimated reproduction number across the U.S. at the end of October was highest for people aged 35 to 49 (1.39) and 20 to 34 (1.29). School reopenings didn’t appear to lead to major increases in COVID-19-related mortality. During this time period, an estimated 72% of infections originated with adults aged 20 to 49. The authors write: “In locations where novel highly-transmissible SARS-CoV-2 lineages have not yet established, additional interventions among adults aged 20 to 49, such as mass vaccination with transmission-blocking vaccines, could bring resurgent COVID-19 epidemics under control and avert deaths.”

Science article on younger adults