Everything you need to know about kids and COVID

As the new school year begins, cases of COVID-19 continue to increase in both adults and children in the United States.In a conversation with Fox News this Sunday, the director of the National Institutes of Health said he was worried. Increased for children..

“Traditionally I think people have a kind of idea.’Well, you know, kids won’t get that sick with this,'” said Francis, head of the agency.・ Collins said in an interview. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has said: “More than 400 children died of COVID-19. And now there are about 2,000 children in the hospital, many in the ICU, some under the age of four.”

This means that “children are in very serious danger,” he said.

Highly contagious delta variants of the new coronavirus have contributed to the proliferation of cases, especially in areas with low vaccination coverage, and the urgent approval of vaccines for children under 12 years of age. May still be a few months away.. However, since the pandemic began, researchers and doctors have confirmed that children are less likely to become seriously ill than adults infected with COVID-19.

“It’s important to remember that the risk of hospitalization and death is still very rare in children,” says Diana Lee, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “We need to be wise about how we get together with people and take appropriate precautions to prevent their spread, but we need to avoid panic despite the recent increase in cases. I have.”

Here’s what we’ve learned about how COVID-19 affects children and what they can do to protect them:

How many children are sick with COVID-19?

NS Recent reports According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Association of Children’s Hospitals, more than 4.41 million children in the United States were COVID-19-positive as of August 12, accounting for 14.4% of all cases since the outbreak of the pandemic. (And in the week ending August 12, children accounted for 18% of weekly COVID-19 cases.)

A report using state-level data also noted that the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases has steadily increased since early July after the decline in early summer. In the week from August 5th to August 12th alone, more than 121,000 cases were reported in children.

Gary Khakilas, a pediatrician at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, said children could be more exposed to the virus as school reopens. And while the proportion of adults and teens in the United States continues to be fully vaccinated, children who are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine remain vulnerable to infection.

“Now, when children return to school a year and a half after the pandemic, some mitigation methods have been withdrawn, and parents and children are a little tired of mitigation methods,” he says. “And add that to the fact that Delta is much more contagious, which is why these cases are so common.”

Most children infected with COVID-19 are asymptomatic or experience only mild symptoms such as fever and cough, Kirkilas adds. Children account for only 1.6-3.5% of all COVID-19 hospitalizations and 0.2-1.9% of all pediatric COVID-19 cases, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Has led to hospitalization. Seven states did not report the deaths of children from COVID-19, with 0 to 0.03 percent of all COVID-19 children dying.

Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has children hospitalized It is rising In the last few weeks. On August 14, the number of children admitted to COVID-19 in the United States reached a record high of 1,902, and children now account for 2.4% of COVID-19 admissions in the United States. Reuters reported..

What I don’t understand yet

At this time, the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes in its report that available data show that COVID-19 rarely causes serious illness or death in children. “But more about the long-term effects of a pandemic on children, such as how the virus can harm the long-term physical health of infected children and their emotional and mental health effects. There is an urgent need to collect a lot of data, “the organization wrote.

Some experts say that the delta variant Make a child sick From previous versions of the virus. However, Kirchilas and Lee say there is not yet enough evidence to know if the delta mutant is likely to cause serious illness in children.

“If you look at the numbers, you might conclude that it’s because more children are hospitalized,” says Kirkilas. However, he says, this may turn out to be primarily because the delta variant spreads more easily than the original virus. “Similarly, if something is effective against an infection, a small subset of children in need of hospitalization will naturally increase, not necessarily simply because more children are infected. , Not because it causes a more serious illness. “

Rarely, COVID-19 is linked to a serious condition called Multisystem inflammatory syndrome Various organs such as the heart and brain become inflamed. This can occur weeks after the child is infected, and as of late July, CDC was found in more than 4,400 children diagnosed with this condition (known in children as MIS-C). I have received a report.Scientists still Work to understand Why some children or adolescents develop MIS-C, while others do not.

“If you can better understand the mechanism [behind it], It helps us develop more direct treatments and more direct interventions for these conditions, “says Lee.

Similarly, researchers still don’t know some reasons Kids develop a long COVID Or how quickly they recover. This condition can include a variety of protracted debilitating symptoms such as brain fog, headaches, and malaise.

“It can be confusing. Is it a virus that causes it? Is it a reaction or inflammation of the body?” Kirkilas says that stressing may also contribute to some symptoms. increase.

Fortunately, recent studies have shown that long COVIDs Unusual for children..one British children’s study It was found that 4.4% of patients with COVID-19 deal with symptoms that last for more than 4 weeks and 1.8% have symptoms that last for more than 8 weeks. In contrast, an estimated 13.3 percent and 4.5 percent of adults have symptoms that last at least 4 or 8 weeks, respectively.

Another remaining question is how many children with COVID-19 are contagious, especially asymptomatic, says Kirchilas. One report published on August 16th JAMA Pediatrics Indicates Even babies and toddlers It can infect viruses. Estimates for the proportion of asymptomatic infected children range from 16 to 50 percent, and identifying this number helps scientists determine how much children will spread COVID-19.

Indirect effect Children’s pandemic

One thing is clear: the pandemic is hitting children. Lee and Kirkilas say that the emergence of COVID-19 has had a spillover effect on children’s lives and has caused many challenges for those who did not catch COVID-19. These include mental health symptoms such as anxiety and depression, interruptions in education, and delayed care for other medical problems. Many children have been deprived of the food they usually offer and the opportunity to interact with their peers.

“Traditionally people … thought that school was a place for teachers to sit down and learn about math, reading and grammar, but I think this pandemic really revealed the fact that there are far more schools. “Kirkiras says. “It was very visceral and I could see the children coming. [to the clinic] Depressed and complaining about being depressed; often the only thing that can be tied together is the fact that their entire life routine has suddenly changed. “

Now that many kids are back in school, they will face a crowded indoor environment that is “like the perfect setup for popularization” of COVID-19, he adds. That is why it is imperative that both children and parents continue to use masks and social distances as much as possible.NS Protecting children who are too young to be vaccinated with COVID-19It is also important to make sure that the other members of the family are fully vaccinated. Finally, Kirkilas says parents need to make sure they have taken their child to a pediatrician for regular health checks and immunity.