Although it has been proven that the older generation and people who already have existing health conditions are more at risk of facing the horrible effects of Covid-19, it does not mean that young people will get away scot-free.
Unfortunately, your youth does not make you immune to this deadly virus.
Anyone can get infected, and anyone can suffer from endless pain and discomfort due to being sick from it as well.
If you don’t believe me yet, let’s take a look at the experiences that these two young, healthy men went through while being infected with Covid-19.
Marathon Runner, 28, Was Unable To Breathe Due To Coronavirus
Firstly, both of these guys are way above average when it comes to the healthy scale.
One is a marathon runner, while the other is an Olympic gold medalist swimmer. So I bet you can imagine just how fit they are.
Mark Stubbs, 28, basically went from marathon training to coughing up blood and being unable to breathe.
He appeared on Good Morning Britain through a video link to talk about his experience with Covid-19.
Mark described it as “like being in a car crash”, and revealed that he was struggling to breathe without assistance. “A couple of days before I was running, mobile, absolutely fine and within three days I was unable to breathe unaided.”
Mark was in the ICU for 13 days while his body struggled to fight the virus, and he was so sick that he was coughing up blood. He also said that he was still feeling quite breathless even though he had already recovered and been discharged.
“I think the misconception is that people are thinking that the young can’t get it, but yeah, indeed it is a bad virus and a lot of young people can get it and will get it,” he said.
He advised everyone to look after themselves and their families, as they could easily spread the virus to each other.
Olympic Swimmer, 31, Struggles To Recover From Coronavirus
Another survivor of Covid-19 came forward to talk about his tough experience while battling the virus.
Cameron van der Burgh, an Olympic gold medalist, described it as “the worst virus ever”.
The 31-year-old athlete won gold for South Africa in the 100-meter breaststroke in the 2012 London Olympics and silver in the 2016 Rio games.
He took to Twitter on Monday, 23 Mar, to talk about how he was struggling with Covid-19, even though he was relatively fit and healthy.
“I have been struggling with Covid-19 for 14 days today. By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs(no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at-risk demographic),” he wrote.
“Although the most severe symptoms(extreme fever) have eased, I am still struggling with serious fatigue and a residual cough that I can’t shake. Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours.”
He went on to say that athletes would continue to train for the Summer Olympics as there was no clarification on whether or not it would continue, and end up unnecessarily pushing themselves.
However, it is now confirmed that the Olympics will be postponed to 2021.
Van der Burgh encouraged everyone to look after themselves, ending his thread of tweets with “Health comes first – COVID-19 is no joke!”
If these super healthy athletes struggled this hard with the coronavirus, who knows what it might be like for the rest of us?
It scares me to even think about it.
Just because you’re young and healthy, it doesn’t mean that the coronavirus can’t come for you. All of us are at risk.
Thus, the best thing to do right now would be to take care of yourself and practise social distancing as this deadly pandemic continues to grow.
