File photo: Agencies

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Xinhua) -- A significant number of younger COVID-19 patients in the United States end up with long-term health complications and the exponential spread of the disease will make the protection of the vulnerable an impossible task, a local paper has warned.

The United States is standing on the second upswing of the first wave of COVID-19 infections and the average age of people infected by the disease has fallen by roughly two decades, a Washington Post article said on Tuesday.

Following COVID-19's assault on the body, a large number of younger COVID-19 patients succumb to long-term health complications like senior citizens as a result of lingering damage to the brain, the article said, adding that the claim by some U.S. politicians that 99 percent of COVID-19 cases are "totally harmless" is a cruel lie.

Though America is doing a better job shielding the most vulnerable as nursing homes are better protected and the elderly have adhered to pandemic hygiene, allowing the exponential spread of the pandemic will eventually undermine the efforts to protect the vulnerable.

"Many Americans simply don't understand what exponential growth means ... Even with a relatively low fatality rate, this could easily leave more than half a million Americans dead," it said.

The report blamed the Trump administration for this unfolding national disaster, saying that it "starts at the top."

"Rather than bucking up governors to continue shutdowns until the burden of disease was manageable," the administration undercut them for their own benefits, it said.

In the COVID-19 crisis, "the medical profession has done its job by providing the facts. But the government, the church and the media have encouraged broad skepticism about essential health measures," the report added.