NBC News
Fed up with pandemic restrictions and lulled into a false sense of security by the increasing rate of vaccinations, coronavirus wards at local hospitals are increasingly being populated by younger, still-unvaccinated adults who've let their guard down, the nation's top public health experts are warning. "It is premature to declare a victory," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said Tuesday at the National Press Club. "We're seeing more and more young people get into serious trouble, namely severe disease, requiring hospitalization and occasionally even tragic deaths in quite young people." Meanwhile, Covid-19 outbreaks linked to younger people have shut down day care centers in Nebraska and Wisconsin and caused cases to quadruple in at least one Connecticut town. In states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Maryland, the number of younger people in hospital Covid-19 wards is on the rise.