Cases are rising and young people are part of it

The major hotspots of new coronavirus cases in the United States are in the South and West, where officials say more young people are ignoring social distancing measures and testing positive.

The increases highlight America's systemic failure to control the pandemic, in sharp contrast to its trajectory in Europe and Asia. There, coronavirus cases sharply increased in the early weeks of 2020, were met with fierce efforts to stop its spread, and then markedly declined.

The good news? Young people are more likely to have milder outcomes from a coronavirus infection. The bad news? They can still infect others who may be at higher risk for a more severe course of disease.

"With younger age of recent infections in at least some places such as Florida, expect a lower death rate in this wave ... until the 20-40-year-olds who are infected today go on to infect others," Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Twitter.

The issue hinges on the mobility of those younger people and how likely they are to spread the virus. This is a bit of a question mark, and its answer could shape how we plan for the fall, the winter -- and even beyond.