Millennials and Gen Z are spreading coronavirus—but not because of parties and bars
Younger generations are blamed for the pandemic’s spread, but also face the brunt of the transmission risk that comes with keeping the economy going.
When paramedics rushed the pregnant Honduran woman into the emergency room, 28-year-old Chuan-Jay Jeffrey Chen stood ready to receive her. It was April, and the pandemic had already taken over his final year as an emergency medicine resident. Of all the coronavirus patients surging into Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, this 32-year-old patient remains Chen’s most memorable.
The woman was so short of breath she could barely speak, so Chen would need to intubate her—a tricky procedure that requires precision as well as speed. Every moment without oxygen causes a patient’s chances of survival to decline; pregnancy further complicates the scenario by making airways swollen, causing blood pressure to drop more quickly. As Chen set to work and talked her through
