Millions of American children will return to school in person this fall, many for the first time in more than a year. At the same time, the new variant of the delta, which caused the collision of the two events, worried many, including health officials.
Most children remain unvaccinated against COVID19, making them one of the most vulnerable groups to the virus. Now let’s shrink these kids and mix them in a super infectious version.
COVID 19 Can Infect Children At High Risk Than Adults
All of a sudden, you have the perfect recipe for the spread of COVID19, at least if you don’t take extra precautions like wearing a mask.
The vaccine provides the best protection. However, many children are still not eligible for the COVID19 vaccine. Although vaccines for children under 12 are being tested, it can take several months before they are available to most children in high school. Younger siblings may have to wait longer.
Even when very young children are vaccinated, it is unclear how many children will be vaccinated. At this stage, 12-year-olds and adolescents can get the COVID19 vaccine. However, most of them were not vaccinated. Some even wonder if children need vaccines. After all, the risk of getting sick and dying from COVID19 is much lower than that of adults.
Most children infected with COVID19 recover without any long-term consequences. But a year and a half after the pandemic, researchers and doctors still don’t know much about what the disease can do with children.
How often do children develop persistent symptoms, also known as “persistent COVID”? Do some healthy children have severe runes a few weeks after recovering from COVID19? In some children, this complication occurs in children who do not even know they are infected.
The delta option now adds new questions. Research conducted mainly on adults shows that this option makes people worse and faster than earlier versions of the coronavirus. Will this affect children even more?
Little data is currently available on the risk of the delta variant in children, but the emerging picture suggests that although the virus poses a small risk for many children, it can be quite serious for some people.
Threats to children
The number of cases of COVID19 infection among children is on the rise. From 6 to 12 August, 121,000 new cases of COVID19 in children were reported. This was reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This is more than 93,824 cases a week earlier and 71,726 new cases in the last week of July. This number has almost doubled from a week earlier (38,654 cases).
As infections grow, so will hospitalizations and deaths. With millions of children infected, even a small fraction “could be tens of thousands of children hospitalized with COVID19,” said Debbie Ann Shirley. Shirley works at the Virginia Health University in Charlottesville, where she studies infectious diseases in children.
Many infected children recover without symptoms or after a few colds. For others, contracting the coronavirus can be life-changing, according to Andrew Pavia. He is an infectious disease doctor. Treatment of children at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
If you are a child who is admitted to an intensive care unit or intensive care unit for a week, “there is nothing soft about that,” or what if the child “develops COVID long and unsuccessfully in a semester?” School and not go to college? Or has he lost his athletic scholarship? These are definitely great deals.
“It pisses me off to hear over and over again that the virus is not serious for children,” Pavia said. He explained: “In all respects, the impact of COVID19 is stronger than the effects of the flu ”. He shared his observation on July 13th. He spoke at a press conference hosted by the American Society for Infectious Diseases.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began tracking deaths from influenza in 2004. Influenza mortality in children ranged from 37 in the 2011-2012 influenza season. Up to 199 in the 2019-2020 flu season. With the season 2020-2021, there is practically no flu. Coronavirus precautions have helped limit it. He has done the same for a number of other respiratory ailments. Last year, the flu season was at a new low, with only one infant death recorded.