Please enable Javascript to watch this video
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- A 27-year-old, soon-to-be doctor, has a warning for all young adults: You are not invincible to COVID-19.
Hes sharing his story in hopes that people who are not taking this seriously begin to realize they too are at risk.
As a fourth-year medical student, David Vega says he prioritized his health. He thought he was invincible to COVID-19, but his outlook changed one month ago.
Very, very scary and the most sick Ive ever felt in my life, Vega explained.
Vega says he could have done more to protect himself. He wrote about his experience for his fellow Indiana University students and staff, to let them know this is serious.
I felt that it would be good to share my story, he added, Especially after seeing there are a lot of young people who are not taking it seriously.
As he detailed his experience, he stated, Sure, Ill wash my hands, Ill social distance after that party, I thought. Looking back, there were too many opportunities for me to have caught this virus. I did not take my health seriously.
After returning from his two-month long global medicine elective in Africa and a week stay in Florida with friends, he knew something wasnt right.
My main symptoms were fever, chills, fatigue, complete muscle and body aches. This lasted about a week, week and a half, and I think thats the scary part, said Vega.
He first thought, maybe its just a bad case of the flu, but he was wrong. He tested positive for COVID-19 and the next 13 days were unimaginable.
Were seeing more and more people admitted to the hospital between ages of 20-44. A lot of those are going to the ICU and being put on ventilators, explained Vega, A lot of them are dying, I was one of the lucky ones.
He continued to detail day by day the symptoms and what he was feeling in his story for the university. He wrote, After waiting SEVEN ENTIRE DAYS in self-quarantine, I finally received my results: positive for COVID-19, continue self-quarantine for another seven days. Ironically, this arrived an hour before receiving my Match Day residency assignment for emergency medicine at the University of Miami. March 20th was certainly a big day of results for me.
Vega wishes he would have listened, but hes not alone.
This is serious business, its a serious infection and it can kill people, said Dr. John Christenson, a Clinical Pediatrics Professor at IU School of Medicine.
Christenson added that hes witnessed young people believing theyre untouchable by congregating, not wearing masks, and barely social distancing.
When you look at the number of cases in Indiana, there are more than 4,000 people who have been infected and a large number of people who have died from this. If you look at hospitals nationwide, youll find adolescents admitted to those hospitals, in intensive care on ventilators, said Christenson.
As for Vega, he will soon begin his residency and he has plans to take his battle with COVID-19 as a learning experience as he prepares to help his own patients.
Seeing the need and seeing now that I have experienced it myself, I understand a lot more about it and have developed some sort of immunity to it, I would say it confirmed my calling even more, said Vega.
According to the CDC, one out of five people hospitalized from COVID-19 are young adults.
Click here to read Vegas full warning to young people.
See the original post here:
- Yes, But. The Annotated Atlantic. [Last Updated On: November 7th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 7th, 2009]
- Health Insurance Benefit Costs by Region [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- For an Operator, Please Press... [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Pollyanna With a Pen: Maine Governor Signs 18 New Health Care Bills into Law [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- AMA Sounds the Alarm, Medicare Making Yet Another Attempt to Cut Reimbursement [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Mass Governor Asks Blue Cross to Keep Higher Employer Contribution [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Lifespan and Care New England Plan Monopoly (Again) [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Dirigo Health: Con Artists, Liars, and Thieves? [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- New Orleans: Health Challenges [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- August a Flurry of Activity [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Maine's Dirigo Health Savings One-Third of Original Estimate [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- “Methodolatry”: My new favorite term for one of the shortcomings of evidence-based medicine [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Suzanne Somers’ Knockout: Dangerous misinformation about cancer (part 1) [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- A science-based blog about GMO [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- A Not-So-Split Decision [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Military Medicine in Iraq [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- The effective wordsmithing of Amy Wallace [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- A Science Lesson from a Homeopath and Behavioral Optometrist [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Join CFI in opposing funding mandates for quackery in health care reform [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Mainstreaming Science-Based Medicine: A Novel Approach [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Those who live in glass houses… [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- J.B. Handley of the anti-vaccine group Generation Rescue: Misogynistic attacks on journalists who champion science [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- When homeopaths attack medicine and physics [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- The cancer screening kerfuffle erupts again: “Rethinking” screening for breast and prostate cancer [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- All Medicines Are Poison! [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- When Loud Wins: Will Your Tax Dollars Pay For Prayer? [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- It’s All in Your Head [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- The Skeptical O.B. joins the Science-Based Medicine crew [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- The Tragic Death Toll of Homebirth [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- What’s the right C-section rate? Higher than you think. [Last Updated On: November 8th, 2009] [Originally Added On: November 8th, 2009]
- Recombinant Human Antithrombin – Milking Nanny Goats for Big Bucks [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Does C-section increase the rate of neonatal death? [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Man in Coma 23 Years – Is He Really Conscious? [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Why Universal Hepatitis B Vaccination Isn’t Quite Universal [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Ontario naturopathic prescribing proposal is bad medicine [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Naturopaths and the anti-vaccine movement: Hijacking the law in service of pseudoscience [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- The Institute for Science in Medicine enters the health care reform fray [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Neti pots – Ancient Ayurvedic Treatment Validated by Scientific Evidence [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Early Intervention for Autism [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- A temporary reprieve from legislative madness [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- A critique of the leading study of American homebirth [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Lose those holiday pounds [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Endocrine disruptors—the one true cause? [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Evidence in Medicine: Experimental Studies [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Midwives and the assault on scientific evidence [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- The Mammogram Post-Mortem [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- An Influenza Recap: The End of the Second Wave [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- The End of Chiropractic [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2009]
- Cell phones and cancer again, or: Oh, no! My cell phone’s going to give me cancer! (revisited) [Last Updated On: December 20th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2009]
- Another wrinkle to the USPSTF mammogram guidelines kerfuffle: What about African-American women? [Last Updated On: December 20th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2009]
- Acupuncture, the P-Value Fallacy, and Honesty [Last Updated On: December 20th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2009]
- The One True Cause of All Disease [Last Updated On: December 20th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2009]
- Communicating with the Locked-In [Last Updated On: December 20th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2009]
- Are the benefits of breastfeeding oversold? [Last Updated On: December 20th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2009]
- Measles [Last Updated On: December 20th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 20th, 2009]
- Radiation from medical imaging and cancer risk [Last Updated On: December 21st, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 21st, 2009]
- Multiple Sclerosis and Irrational Exuberance [Last Updated On: December 21st, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 21st, 2009]
- Medical Fun with Christmas Carols [Last Updated On: December 22nd, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 22nd, 2009]
- Lithium for ALS – Angioplasty for MS [Last Updated On: December 23rd, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 23rd, 2009]
- “Toxins”: the new evil humours [Last Updated On: December 24th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 24th, 2009]
- 2009’s Top 5 Threats To Science In Medicine [Last Updated On: December 24th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 24th, 2009]
- Buteyko Breathing Technique – Nothing to Hyperventilate About [Last Updated On: December 26th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 26th, 2009]
- The Graston Technique – Inducing Microtrauma with Instruments [Last Updated On: December 29th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 29th, 2009]
- The “pharma shill” gambit [Last Updated On: December 29th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 29th, 2009]
- Ginkgo biloba – No Effect [Last Updated On: December 30th, 2009] [Originally Added On: December 30th, 2009]
- Oppose “Big Floss”; practice alternative dentistry [Last Updated On: January 1st, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 1st, 2010]
- Causation and Hill’s Criteria [Last Updated On: January 3rd, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 3rd, 2010]
- The life cycle of translational research [Last Updated On: January 10th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 10th, 2010]
- The anti-vaccine movement strikes back against Dr. Paul Offit [Last Updated On: January 10th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 10th, 2010]
- Osteoporosis Drugs: Good Medicine or Big Pharma Scam? [Last Updated On: January 10th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 10th, 2010]
- Acupuncture for Hot Flashes [Last Updated On: January 10th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 10th, 2010]
- The case for neonatal circumcision [Last Updated On: January 10th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 10th, 2010]
- A victory for science-based medicine [Last Updated On: January 10th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 10th, 2010]
- James Ray and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) [Last Updated On: January 10th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 10th, 2010]
- The Water Cure: Another Example of Self Deception and the “Lone Genius” [Last Updated On: January 12th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 12th, 2010]
- Be careful what you wish for, Dr. Dossey, you just might get it [Last Updated On: January 13th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 13th, 2010]
- You. You. Who are you calling a You You? [Last Updated On: January 15th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 15th, 2010]
- The War on Salt [Last Updated On: January 16th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2010]
- Is breech vaginal delivery safe? [Last Updated On: January 16th, 2010] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2010]