COVID-19: No Free Ride

 

While COVID-19 appears to be less common and less severe in children compared to adults, children do get sick with the virus and easily pass it on to others. Some children develop dangerous health-altering and life-threatening complications from the infection (long-COVID symptoms that last for months, for example, and multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C) and several hundred children have died. Children with underlying medical conditions are especially vulnerable to having bad outcomes, according to CDC data:

Current evidence suggests that children with special healthcare needs, including genetic, neurologic, metabolic conditions, or with congenital heart disease can be at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Similar to adults, children with obesity, diabetes, asthma or chronic lung disease, sickle cell disease, or immunosuppression can also be at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

 

In an editorial written last week in the journal Science, pediatric infectious disease specialists Jeffrey Gerber and Paul Offit ask an important question to help vaccine-hesitant parents make the best decision for their kids: Which is worse, vaccination or natural infection with COVID-19?

Make no mistake—COVID-19 is a childhood illness. When SARS-CoV-2 entered the United States early in 2020, children accounted for fewer than 3% of cases; today, they account for more than 25%. More than 6 million US children have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, including 2 million between the ages of 5 and 11. At the end of October 2021, about 100,000 children per week were infected. Of the tens of thousands of children who have been hospitalized, about one-third had no preexisting medical conditions, and many have required the intensive care unit. Almost 700 children have died from COVID-19, placing SARS-CoV-2 infection among the top 10 causes of death in US children. No children have died from vaccination.

 

Drs. Gerber and Offit debunk some common misconceptions occupying the minds of some skeptical parents, including the size of the pediatric clinical trials (sufficient to determine that the vaccines are overwhelmingly safe and 91% effective in preventing symptoms of COVID-19 in children) and the rare incidence of myocarditis (much more common and much worse with natural infection vs. from the two mRNA vaccines). They say “vaccinating all children against SARS-CoV-2 could be among the most impactful public health efforts the U.S. has seen in decades.”

Children need to go to school, play with friends, and participate in extracurricular activities for their social and emotional development. This is their life. Since August 2021, more than 2000 schools in the US have been forced to close because of COVID-19 outbreaks, affecting more than 1 million students. The disruption of school activities has harmed children more than any detectable vaccine side effect, including worsening of mental health, widening education gaps, and decreased physical activity. These harms have disproportionately affected people of color, Indigenous persons, and individuals of lower socioeconomic status, further exacerbating inequities. Avoidance of routine health care and routine vaccination has also emerged, with potentially devastating future consequences. Furthermore, children live closely with and rely on adults to whom they can pass SARS-CoV-2 infection—adults who can be overwhelmed by this infection.

 

Vaccinating all eligible persons 5 years and older is the best tool to protect everyone — healthy people who get unlucky battling COVID-19 and those at highest risk — from severe illness, complications, and death:

Although it is true that most children experience asymptomatic or mild disease, some will get quite sick, and a small number will die. It’s why children are vaccinated against influenza, meningitis, chickenpox, and hepatitis—none of which, even before vaccines were available, killed as many as SARS-CoV-2 per year.

Some parents are understandably hesitant to vaccinate their young children. However, a choice not to get a vaccine is not a risk-free choice; rather, it’s a choice to take a different and more serious risk. The biomedical community must strive to make this clear to the public. It could be one of the most important health decisions a parent will make.

 

What should be clear by now about COVID-19 is that no one, not even a child, gets a free ride.

 

(Google Images)

 

source http://www.thepediablog.com/2021/11/23/covid-19-no-free-ride/