# What chronic conditions increases risks to die from Corona virus ? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 3, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879 "2020-03-03T17:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/1 "2020-03-03T17:13:18Z")
Question 1. Basically the subject. Is it high blood pressure, diabetes, allergies, smoking … ? Question 2. For people with the above conditions, is there any supplements or drugs they can take as a precaution ? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/2 "2020-03-03T17:41:26Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Question 1. Basically the subject. Is it high blood pressure, diabetes, allergies, smoking … ? > **[Who is getting sick, and how sick? A breakdown of coronavirus risk by...](https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/03/who-is-getting-sick-and-how-sick-a-breakdown-of-coronavirus-risk-by-demographic-factors/)** > > The new coronavirus is not an equal-opportunity killer. Here's what research has shown about who might be most at risk. > [@](#): > > After taking into account the patients’ ages and smoking status, the researchers found that the 399 patients with at least one additional disease (including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hepatitis B, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney diseases, and cancer) had a 79% greater chance of requiring intensive care or a respirator or both, or of dying, they reported last week in a paper posted to medRxiv, a preprint site that posts research before it has been peer-reviewed. The 130 with two or more additional diseases had 2.5 times the risk of any of those outcomes. > [@am77494](#): > > Question 2. For people with the above conditions, is there any supplements or drugs they can take as a precaution ? Wash your hands and avoid contact. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/3 "2020-03-03T20:10:56Z")
Anything that compromises the immune system: heart disease, diabetes, long-term steroid therapy (usually prednisone), organ transplant recipient, cancer patient in active treatment, people with autoimmune diseases, and senior citizens in general. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/4 "2020-03-08T17:50:40Z")
From Worldometer (article based on Data as of February 11, 2020): Death rate=(number of deaths/number of cases)=probability of dying if infected by the virus (%) Cardiovascular= 10.5% Diabetes= 7.3% Chronic respiratory disease= 6.3% Hypertension=6.0% Cancer 5.6% no pre-existing conditions= 0.9% age risk: 0-9 years=no fatalities, 10-39 years= 0.2%, 40-49 years=0.4%, 50-59 years= 1.3%, 60-69 years= 3.6%, 70-79 years= 8.0%, 80+ years=14.8% From what other articles I have read these percentages ADD TOGETHER with age risk and sex (males 2.8%/females 1.7%-understanding higher prevalence of male smokers) to determine risk of dying from infection. For example: my age 60-69=3.9% +10.5%+6.3%+6.0%+1.7%= 28.4% risk of dying if infected by Covid-19. I cancelled my trip to Japan scheduled for this week, and am isolating at home in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/5 "2020-03-08T18:21:14Z")
I don’t think they stack like that. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/6 "2020-03-08T19:28:13Z")
> [@pudytat72](#): > > For example: my age 60-69=3.9% +10.5%+6.3%+6.0%+1.7%= 28.4% risk of dying if infected by Covid-19. > I cancelled my trip to Japan scheduled for this week, and am isolating at home in Texas. Definitely not how it works. The conditions correlate with each other, but probably much more importantly they correlate with age, which would explain why cardiovascular disease is such a big risk factor. In other words, people with cardiovascular disease are mostly at higher risk because they’re older. You certainly can’t just add the percentages like that. In any case, none of that data is precise enough for anything besides discussion of general trends. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/7 "2020-03-08T21:20:02Z")
The percentages are much closer to 0 than to 100, so adding them and multiplying them are about the same thing (that is, 1.02 times 1.03 is very close to 1.05, etc). Multiplicative risk isn’t necessarily a bad rough model, at least until somebody posts something better. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/8 "2020-03-08T21:30:17Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > The percentages are much closer to 0 than to 100, so adding them and multiplying them are about the same thing (that is, 1.02 times 1.03 is very close to 1.05, etc). Multiplicative risk isn’t necessarily a bad rough model, at least until somebody posts something better. Since all the risk factors correlate with each other and with age, it is a bad model. Most 70 year olds have multiple risk factors, and a 70 year old who has only has mild hypertension, for example, is probably at lower risk than an average 70 year old, not higher. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/9 "2020-03-08T21:36:12Z")
Also, I’m not sure how adding those percentages is at all like multiplying them. In pudytat’s example, multiplying the risk factors gives you about 5%, not 28%. Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/10 "2020-03-08T21:42:02Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > Question 2. For people with the above conditions, is there any supplements or drugs they can take as a precaution ? Supplements: No. Drugs: whatever medication is normally taken to keep your condition under control to the extent possible. Otherwise: wash, wash, wash your hands, avoid crowds, eat healthy, and get enough sleep. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-chronic-conditions-increases-risks-to-die-from-corona-virus/848879/11 "2020-03-09T00:06:27Z")
Well, statistics was never a good subject for me, so I apologize for the misinformation. My bottom line: Chronic medical conditions and increasing age above 60 are big risk factors for death from this infection.