Youngest Covid Victim in EBR Was 29; So Why Require Students to Use Masks?

By Woody Jenkins, Editor • The Central City News has analyzed East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner office reports on deaths attributed to the coronavirus from March 22 to August 31.

The results are remarkable.

The disease has primarily affected senior citizens.

Census estimates for 2019 say 14.6 percent of the parish population is 65 or older.  However, they represent 76.6 percent of Covid deaths through August 31.  People 60 years or older accounted for 86.2 percent of the deaths in the parish.

Perhaps most striking is the fact that out of 414 deaths in the parish no one under 29 has died as a result of Covid19.  Yet, the local public school systems and all private schools have followed BESE rules requiring students to “mask up” throughout the school day.

The question is, Why?

Schools were closed for two and a half months in the spring because of the pandemic. Once-in-a-lifetime senior activities were severely restricted or cancelled entirely.  Students in the East Baton Rouge Parish school system are just now returning to the classroom — with masks! Sports and extracurricular activities are being restricted.

Another remarkable part of the data is that even people up to 50 years of age are barely affected.

Only five whites and 26 blacks under 51 years of age in this parish of 440,000 have died from Covid19.

From age 51 to 60, nine whites and 27 blacks have died.

The data indicates that the disease strikes almost entirely older citizens with co-morbidities.

Of the 414 deaths, 347 were over 60 years of age, and 243 were over 70 years of age.  The median age of deaths in the parish was 73.  The median age in the parish is 32.

The 2019 census estimates say the parish is 47.6 percent white and 47.2 percent black, but 56 percent of the deaths from Covid were among black residents.  The data provides no explanation, but many believe it is because of higher rates of co-morbidity among blacks.

Ironically, far more whites than blacks died in the age categories 81-90 and 91-104.  However, the average life span of whites in Louisiana is 76, compared to 72 for blacks.  So there are far more whites than blacks over 81 in the parish.

The data shows one person died at age 0. This was an unborn child who died because her mother died of Covid.