Also, the kids eventually grow up to become adults.
Age 5-17 appears to have about 5% of the risk of hospitalization for COVID-19 that adults do. Some small number have higher risk due to pre-existing medical conditions.
It’s hard to group all kids together. I’d say the 12-15 range probably spread it more easily around than the 0-5 age group. And 6-11 is probably somewhere in between. I’d be more concerned with vaccinating the older ones myself.
Last month 25% of our local cases were <19. I was surprised by that stat. No deaths, but I noticed we now have 2 cases of MIS-C. It’s been awhile since I’ve paid close attention, but the overall state number seems to have jumped as well from what I can recall.
Also, we don’t know that all of these recovered kids are truly recovered, or do they now have heart/lung defects? We already hear of young athletes dropping dead on the field/court due to previously unknown heart issues. I wonder if that will be more common now?
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It also probably depends on whether they are going to in-person school, and whether the in-person school is a highly-regulated-for-COVID-19 environment (shields, masks, distancing, no lunch or recess contact) or a pre-COVID-19 normal in-person school environment (including largely unregulated lunch and recess periods).
" On Monday, the AAP said children represented 22.4% of new cases reported in the past week, accounting for 71,649 out of 319,601 cases."
"Now, the part where that conversation about severity gets a little bit more complicated is yes, it is absolutely true that it’s less severe in kids than it is in adults, and particularly older adults. But it’s also not true to say that it’s completely benign in kids. Fortunately, pediatric death is a fairly rare event. But when you look at the top 10 causes of death, on an annual basis, this year, we’ve had, depending on whose numbers you use, somewhere between 300 and 600 pediatric deaths from COVID-19 so far. That’s probably an undercount. And that would fit it somewhere in the top 10, somewhere between like No. 6 and No. 9 in terms of causes of death for children.
So the point I’m making, there is that yes, it’s less severe, but it’s still potentially a very severe disease. We’ve seen tens of thousands of hospitalizations already. So we do need a vaccine for children, not just to protect, not just to achieve herd immunity, but also to protect the children themselves."
Worth reading vvvvv
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Of course children represent a higher percentage of cases now - because the older age groups make up less of the proportion, due to vaccines. It’s interesting to see the way the data is presented to stir up fear to get kids vaccinated for a virus that presents almost no risk to them.
But, that being said, parents should be able to make their own informed decision after the risk-benefits analysis of giving their child an experimental vaccine. Unfortunately, that choice seems to be being taken out of parents’ hands as time goes on. My kid’s private school is requiring them in the fall.
Did you read beyond that quote? Because the article recognizes exactly what you are saying - but also gives other factors to consider like the fact that pediatric death is rare in itself - unlike adults - but that still Covid ranks in the top 10’of pediatric deaths AND that children can still be carriers to adults who are not vaccinated, other children who are more vulnerable, etc.
Parents ARE able to make their own informed decision after the risk-benefits analysis of giving their child an experimental vaccine. Are you aware of any scenario where a child has been vaccinated without parental consent?
The fact that your kid’s private school is requiring covid vaccination does NOT take the choice out of your hands. As it now stands, parents can ALWAYS refuse vaccination. They may have to change schools, but the fact remains that no one can force a parent to get their kid vaccinated against covid.
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“They may have to change schools.” Rock and a hard place. Sounds like blackmail.
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For sure some will feel like rock and a hard place. But blackmail? No.
Schools have been requiring vaccines for decades. Have we been calling it blackmail all this time? I have personally not framed it in that way
Many hospitals require staff to be vaccinated for influenza every year or face termination. Is it “blackmail” or simply a requirement that is in place to protect others? People who don’t want to comply can seek employment elsewhere.
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But many of these vaccines have been out for years .These are new and certainly less then 6 months for kids. There are some people who want to wait, especially for their 12-17 year olds. To uproot them from their school that they have been attending , does put parents in a bad position.
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Sure, it could be a very unpleasant choice. But a CHOICE it remains. At the end of the day, the parent has the last word.
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@deb922, my sister who is in TN and is fully vaccinated just tested positive for COVID. Not clear what the rules are in TN, but we have seen where we live that fully vaxxed people are going out, hugging, etc. Not clear that is such a great idea and has an impact on others – my sister has seen my brother (who just had surgery), my 97 yo mother, and her husband (a surgeon) before the symptoms that led her to get a test.
I fear that people evaluating the short-term cost benefit may be underestimating the downside for people and society. I read an article in the Economist that calculated that 10% of the people who contracted COVID in the UK became long-haulers – that is, had ongoing symptoms including aches, fever and brain fog (and a bunch of others). Not clear if that will end. Another study used the University of California COVID Research Data Set to identify 1407 medical records. “The team developed a model to predict the likelihood of becoming a long-hauler based on patients’ symptoms. According to the study findings, 27% reported persistent symptoms after 60 days. Women were more likely to become long-haulers and all age groups were represented. Individuals between 30 and 70 years of age comprised 72% of cases. Notably, of the 34 children included in the study, 11 had long-term symptoms.”
I put this in another area also.
Tennessee feels like 2019. No masks anywhere. At all. Restaurants packed, no masks on wait staff. No masks at retail establishments. Nada. It’s very surreal
My mom lives in the Knoxville area so this is not rural Tennessee
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How severe? The vaccine trials did find that those who did get breakthrough infections rarely needed hospitalization (compared to the usual rate of hospitalization for COVID-19).
You are probably referring to https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.03.21252086v1.full-text . Note that only non-hospitalized people with positive PCR tests for COVID-19 were included. Long-haulers were defined as those with symptoms past day 60.
The paper says that “in the current study we report that 27% of community dwellers reported symptoms after 60 days.” The study also found that female and White people were overrepresented among long-haulers versus the overall group. Age demographics did not appear to be that different for long-haulers versus the overall group.
I was at a lovely charity lunch today. It was outside in a tent at a golf club and you were seated with only those in your party. Every person was just thrilled to be out and having a nice time. Every speaker started with some kind of mention of how nice to be out and dressed and wearing jewelry etc. Seemed like everybody was vaccinated (my friends were and the speakers all were). We did all wear masks when not sitting at our table eating.
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I’ve discussed this on some other threads … my MIL’s assisted living facility had four residents & one staff member test positive this week. Our understanding is that vaccines are mandatory for residents & staff. What’s not mandatory is vaccines for others … and it’s in a state with a very low vaccination rate. Hopefully, the fact that everyone was vaccinated will result in quick and full recovery. But the fact is that the virus is not gone, and fewer vaccinations in the near term will lead to the virus being an issue for longer than it might otherwise be. If keeping masks on our faces a while longer can help, it’s not that much to ask, IMO. Heck, I wear a shirt & shoes to go into a store. I don’t yell fire in public when there is no fire. There are a lot of things I have to do that maybe technically infringe on my rights or perhaps inconvenience me.
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Oh, no, a breakthrough case! Was she 2+ weeks past her 2nd dose? Is her case mild? (How did she come to be tested?)
One thing I’ve wondered about is if fully vaccinated people who get breakthrough covid cases also become long-haulers? And before anyone rushes in to say that the fully vaccinated get milder cases, remember that even asymptomatic people can develop long-hauler symptoms.
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They’ve actually found that many long haulers improve after getting vaccinated.
Yes, they have, but the improvements may not be long-lasting.
“Some of those with long covid have felt dramatically better after a covid-19 vaccination. But the relief tends to be temporary. Doctors have seen this before. People with CFS, for example, sometimes feel temporarily better after a flu shot or other vaccination. Nobody knows why. One possibility is that the revved-up immune system alleviates their symptoms for a time. A placebo effect may also be involved. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, has proposed clinical trials of covid-19 vaccines for long covid. She argues that seeing which work, even if only for a short time, may unmask the specific immune abnormality involved—and show what sorts of drugs could work as well.”
Darn. Hope they figure it out eventually. Hearing about long haulers is what really made me want to get vaccinated as soon as I could.
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