Can the flu kill someone in their 20's? Asking for a whumpee.
Many strains of seasonal flu virus generally kill the very young (under 5 years old), the very old (over 65 years old), or those with existing chronic diseases (about 70-90% of deaths come from these groups). Pandemic flu viruses, however, like the 2009 swine H1N1 virus and the 1918 avian H1N1 virus tend to cause the majority of their deaths in the 20-40 age group (by contrast, 80% of deaths from 2009 H1N1 were under 65 years old).
We think this discrepancy in death rates comes because H1N1-style strains have been around for a long time, and those who are over 65 have had more time to catch a similar one and recover from it, conferring full or partial immunity to the current strain. Since the virus is deadly enough that it *can* kill young, healthy people, and those people just also happen to not be immune to it, it appears as though it preferentially kills those in their 20s-40s, when it’s really just... that deadly.
So normally someone in their 20s would not die of seasonal flu, but 2009 H1N1 still circulates (though its inclusion in seasonal flu vaccines in the years immediately following the 2009 flu season have significantly limited its pandemic-potential), and a re-created 1918 H1N1 virus exists in a lab at the CDC, so depending on their luck, its very possible for a 20-something to catch one of these and die.
