In N.H., COVID-19 is a fatal disease of the old, especially old men

New Hampshire is pretty old and pretty white, which is contributing to some interesting trends in COVID-19.

Of the 199 deaths related to the disease so far, a whopping 89% have been reported in people over the age of 70. No deaths have been reported in anybody under age 20 and only eight in people younger than 60.

This is true even though middle-aged people are getting sick at fairly high rates: More than a quarter of hospitalizations occur in people aged 40 to 59.

But the old population in New Hampshire is overwhelmingly white – blacks, Hispanics and Asians are on average much younger than whites. That helps explain an anomaly:

Blacks and Hispanics have gotten the disease in disproportionate numbers compared to their presence in New Hampshire’s population but are no more likely to die from it than white residents – because they’re younger. 

Blacks make up 1.4% of New Hampshire but have had more than 5% of the cases and hospitalizations. No African-American has died from COVID-19 in the state. Hispanics make up 3.9% of the population but have been 9% of the hospitalizations as well as 3.9% of the deaths.

No Asians have died and they have been diagnosed and hospitalized with the disease at almost exactly their population rate in New Hampshire – 3.0%. I suspect this is because Asians in New Hampshire tend to be better off than other non-white groups – the stereotype of South Asians being doctors or software engineers often holds true here.

New Hampshire is also seeing the gender discrepancy reported elsewhere: Women are more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than men – 55% of cases are in females – but men are much more likely to be hospitalized (59%) and to die (53%). That’s particularly startling because in the over-70 cohort, women far outnumber men, many of whom have already died due to stupidity, bad habits and overall masculinity.