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The key to this question is the detour road sign “yet.” Without that road sign and the rest of the sentence, one could predict a number of words for the first two blanks, even some that are opposite others. Was there little attention because of few fatalities? Was there a great deal of attention due to a large number of fatalities? “Yet, there were warnings” provides the answer. “Yet” hints that the warnings were not heeded. So predict that the pandemic initially drew “little” attention (for the first blank) due to the fact that even though many people were infected, there was a “lack” of deaths (for the second blank). This reasoning leads to (C) scant, or “having a small or insufficient supply,” as the correct answer for the first blank, and (E) infrequent, or “rare,” for the second blank. (A) widespread is the opposite of what is needed for the first blank, while (D) myriad and (F) innumerable, both of which mean ”very many,” are the opposite of what is needed for the second blank. Additionally, (D) and (F) are close in meaning to each other, which is a sign that neither is correct. Note that (B) adverse, which means “hostile,” “harmful,” or “acting in a contrary direction,” doesn’t fit here, as there is nothing in the sentence that suggests the type of attention the pandemic received, just the amount it received.

For the third blank, if the young adults who died had been in poor health to begin with, their deaths wouldn’t have raised warning flags. It must be, then, that they were young adults of otherwise “good” or “stable” health. This prediction leads to (I) sound, or “free from injury or disease,” as the correct answer for the third blank. Similarly, if the young adults’ health had been (G) unpredictable, their deaths wouldn’t be expected to attract attention or serve as a warning. (H) vulnerable, or “capable of being attacked or wounded,” is the opposite of what this sentence requires.