English translation: “No, it is not only the elderly or people who already have a medical problem who fall victim to the new coronavirus. Emergency doctor Ignace Demeyer warns about this. "We see people with a blank medical history who are very ill." It's not just about older generations, either. "We have had very few older people inside so far," says Dr. Demeyer. "We now have people between the ages of 30 and 50 coming in." "They all have the same complaints," says Dr. Demeyer. "They have been sick for a week, stayed home with the flu. The flu attack is over, they think. They feel fine for two days. And then they report with complaints of a dry cough and shortness of breath. When we then have their oxygen saturation (level of oxygen in our blood, ed.), we see that they have very low oxygen saturations for their age. "
At that time, a clear alarm goes off to the doctors that it concerns problem patients, but people themselves do not always realize it because they do not feel very ill at the time. "They just walk in, but they are terribly affected by the virus." Emergency doctor Demeyer also shows scans of the lungs of such a corona patient. "The images we took yesterday are nothing short of terrifying."
Inflammatory fluid The picture on the left shows normal lungs. In the second photo, there are already alveoli that are 20 to 25 percent filled with inflammatory fluid. The third scan is one step worse: it contains 80 to 90 percent inflammatory fluid. "Those people can of course still heal, but it is a life-threatening situation. And they are people who do not smoke, they have no other condition such as diabetes or heart failure. They are sporty young people."
Virologist Steven Van Gucht shares that concern. "That is one of the reasons why we advised the government to implement those drastic measures and why we ask everyone to follow them strictly." Doctor Demeyer calls "some irresponsible behavior" that some young people still do not see the seriousness and organize parties or go on weekends.”