Reaching The Breaking Point

 

180,175 American children were diagnosed with COVID-19 last week — a 48% increase from the week before, and a 2,000% rise since late June when only 8,500 cases were reported. In their weekly COVID report, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association found the number of positive tests in the pediatric age group approaching the highest number — 211,466 — recorded in mid-January 2021.

Mark Wietecha reports that children’s hospitals are reaching their breaking points, and not just in states with low vaccination rates:

Reports of crowding are similar from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Denver and Miami. Many children’s hospital intensive care units are at or near capacity, with kids waiting in emergency departments because there aren’t enough beds to admit them or enough hospital staff to safely care for them.

In the previous month, the numbers of new COVID-19 cases in children and youth have more than quadrupled – from 39,000 per week to 181,000 per week. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2,100 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 last week, setting a new seven-day record.

 

We should pause here to remind ourselves that as hospital emergency rooms, hospital beds, and intensive care units fill up with COVID-19 patients wishing to survive the virus, there is less room and fewer beds left for other casualties: adults suffering heart attacks and strokes, infants and children suffering from RSV and asthma attacks, and patients needing to recover from trauma and high-risk surgical procedures.

While case rates in children rise steadily as schools around the country open their doors to both masked and maskless students, teachers, and staff, Richard Franki says vaccination rates are going in the opposite direction:

First vaccinations were down for the second consecutive week, falling by 18% among 12- to 15-year-olds and by 15% in those 16 or 17, according to CDC data.

 

As of last week, 47% of children between 12-15 years old had at least one Pfizer vaccine in their arms; 34% were fully vaccinated with both doses. The vaccine has been approved for older teenagers a little longer, so their vaccine uptake has been better: For 16-17 year-olds,  56% had at least one dose and 44% were fully vaccinated.

 

 

Franki notes that pediatric vaccination rates vary widely by state:

There are seven states where over 60% of 12- to 17-year-olds have at least started the vaccine regimen and five states where less than 30% have received at least one dose, the American Academy of Pediatrics noted.

 

Since the pandemic started, 4.6 million children have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s nearly 15% of all cases diagnosed in the United States. So far, 18,000 have been hospitalized and 402 children have died, including 24 in just the last week.

The PediaBlog has reported on cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), the rare and serious complication of COVID-19 that has affected 4,403 children in the U.S. and resulted in 37 deaths, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker. A study published earlier this summer found a small silver lining in the dark cloud that is MIS-C:

Though the need for physical rehabilitation and mental health concerns persist, organ-specific sequelae of pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (PIMS-TS) appear to be resolved at six months […]

“Beyond physical sequelae, family trauma and anxiety were prominent in our cohort as a direct consequence of the affected child’s illness,” the authors write.

 

Thankfully, for most children COVID-19 turns out not to be as life-threatening or life-altering as it is in adults. But it is still dangerous for some kids more than others, especially for those with underlying medical conditions. In a global study published last week, researchers showed a much higher risk of severe illness and adverse outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents with cancer. Mike Basset explains:

Of children with cancer who contracted COVID-19, 20% developed severe or critical disease compared with 1% to 6% of children without cancer as noted in other studies, reported Sheena Mukkada, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, and colleagues.

Pediatric cancer patients with COVID-19 were also more likely to be hospitalized and die compared with children in the general population, they noted in Lancet Oncology.

 

Getting vaccinated, wearing masks, washing hands, and avoiding large crowds protect not just the person being asked to follow these very basic public health precautions. They protect everyone around you — vaccinated people who fear a breakthrough infection (and concomitant loss of work, income, school, and freedom to live in good health), unvaccinated people who decide to take chances with their health and those around them, and people who are vulnerable to this deadly infection for reasons related to their unique medical situations.

Protecting me will help protect you; protecting yourself will help protect me.

Get vaccinated. Wear a mask. Stay home if you’re not feeling well. That’s how this public health stuff works.

 

source http://www.thepediablog.com/2021/08/30/reaching-the-breaking-point/