Feds appeal to young people to help stem virus spread

With fresh evidence that the Coronavirus is spreading more quickly in the south and southwest, Vice President Mike Pence on Friday led a plea by top federal health experts to younger Americans, urging them to restrict their social activity in a bid to slow new virus outbreaks in a number of states.

"There are 16 states with rising cases and rising percentages," Pence told reporters after a meeting of the White House Coronavirus task force, as officials waved red flags about California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Nevada and Utah.

"Younger Americans have a particular responsibility to make sure that they're not carrying the Coronavirus into settings where they would expose the most vulnerable," Pence added.

On one hand, Pence saluted work on the virus as 'remarkable,' while at the same time issuing a direct plea to young Americans to slow their social activities.

"One of things that we're seeing among the case - we hear this in Florida and we hear this in Texas and elsewhere - is that roughly half of the new cases are of Americans under the age of 35," the Vice President said.

"We are all in it together, and the only way we are going to end it is by ending it together," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, as he implored younger Americans to restrain their social activities.

At the briefing, Fauci described the difficulty in tracing the Coronavirus, because so often it is transmitted by people who have no idea they are carrying it.

“Because the chances are if you get infected, you are going to infect someone else,” Fauci explained.

Fauci said he fully understands the desire of young people to go socialize at parties and bars, but the nation's top infectious disease expert said that's only spreading the disease further, and endangering those with health troubles.

"If you get infected, you are part - innocently or inadvertently - of propagating the dynamic process of a pandemic," Fauci said.

While issuing a fresh warning about the virus, Pence also made clear that the U.S. should be better prepared for any new surge of patients in hospitals, simply because of the experience gained earlier this year.

"Where 2 months ago we were seeing some 15 percent of new cases being hospitalized, now that is averaging roughly 5 percent," Pence said.  “Hospitalization remains very, very broadly available.”

Reporters also pressed the Vice President for seemingly sending different messages - that people should hold back on their activities in public, but that it was okay for the Trump Campaign to hold large gatherings in recent days in Arizona and Oklahoma.

The briefing from Pence and top federal health experts came as Governors in Florida, Texas, and other states paused the lifting of virus restrictions.

Pence indicated everything had been trending in the right direction - until just the last two weeks.

Cox Media Group