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groups are disproportionately represented in essential work settings such as health care facilities, factories, grocery stores and public transportation and therefore have more chances to be exposed to the novel coronavirus. Asymptomatic and COVID-19 The long-term health effects for those who are asymptomatic is “tricky” to determine, Dumont says. “It’s too early to tell because there are so many people who are asymptomatic, and they don’t even know it, so it’s hard to pinpoint the side effects because we just don’t have the data yet,” he explains. A CDC study suggests somewhere between 20% and 50% of those with COVID-19 never experience noticeable symptoms. Although it may be comforting that many of those with COVID have no apparent ill effects while they are infected, the problem for health officials is that asymptomatic carriers can still spread the virus to others — mak- ing it tricky to monitor and corral. Although Dumont does not have any concrete evidence on the long-term health effects of asymptomatic patients, the journalNature Medicine competed research on three dozen such patients and found lung irregularities in two-thirds of those it examined. “I think it’s most likely that these underlying lung things will heal, but the fact is we don’t know,” Dr. Adam Bernheim, a cardiothoracic radiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, toldNature Medicine. “The presumption that people who don’t develop symptoms are getting off scot-free may be wrong,” added Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Institute.

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While age plays a factor in hospitalizations or deaths, so too does race and ethnicity. A chart on cdc.gov shows Native Americans are nearly three times more likely to have a case of COVID-19 and 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to white and non-Hispanic people.

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