COVID-19 Hospital Patients Tend to Be Younger Now

National data indicates that COVID-19 patients ending up in U.S. hospitals are now tending to skew 50 or younger, reports the Wall Street Journal . Health officials and epidemiologists said this trend is unsurprising, given older Americans are being vaccinated at higher rates. However, they worry that stagnating immunization rates among younger Americans could delay the pandemic's end, while others fear that new, more transmissible and possibly deadlier variants are putting more younger people in hospitals. Americans 65 and older currently make up 28.5 percent of hospitalizations — a 24.5 percent decline from early January — while the proportion of COVID-19 patients between 18 to 49 surged. That demographic presently accounts for 36 percent of hospitalizations, marking a 15.5 percent spike. Patients 50 to 64 years old have increased 7.1 percent to constitute 32.4 percent of hospitalizations. "I think the real story here is that vaccines work," said MaineHealth Chief Medical Officer Joan Boomsma. "We're seeing fewer hospitalizations in the older age groups, and the only patients we're seeing in the ICU now are those who are not vaccinated."