Pandemic Denial Destroys Lives
How COVID Impacts Children
Hospitalizations, Deaths & Injury by COVID
COVID is the leading cause of death for children & young adults ages 0-19:
COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death for more than 940,000 people in the US, including over 1,300 deaths among children and young people aged 0–19 years.
According to the researchers, these results suggest that, with variants of COVID-19 continuing to circulate, public health measures such as vaccinations, staying at home when sick, and ventilation still have an important role to play in limiting transmission of the virus and mitigating severe disease in children and young people.
Massive surge in hospitalizations of babies and young kids due to COVID recorded in 2nd year of pandemic:
In the second year of the pandemic (2021-2022), hospitalizations due to COVID-19 skyrocketed more than 600% among children aged 0-4 compared to the previous year Society failed the kids. And society continues to fail them.
COVID may be tied to rise in brain infections in children:
Researchers said it's possible bacteria that live in the nose, mouth and throat might travel to the brain as the coronavirus weakens a person's immune system.
The Pandemic Orphans
1M U.S. COVID deaths mean pandemic orphan numbers reach 250,000:
"More than 250,000 children have lost a parent or a primary caregiver to COVID-19."
Many humbling stories of childhood grief are shared in this article.
There’s no return to normal for millions of children orphaned during Covid:
Over 8 million children have lost a primary care-giver to COVID.
The Devastating Impact of Long COVID on Children
Long COVID in Children & Adolescents
Experience the following:
fatigue
postexertional malaise
cognitive dysfunction
memory loss
headaches
orthostatic intolerance
sleep difficulty
shortness of breath
Rare & Possible Events:
pulmonary embolism
myocarditis
cardiomyopathy
venous thromboembolic events
renal failure
type 1 diabetes
liver injury
Long COVID Adolescents Ages 15-19
2 - 36x more likely to experience:
fatigue
headache
dizziness
dyspnoea
chest pain
dysosmia
dysgeusia
reduced appetite
concentration difficulties
memory issues
mental exhaustion
physical exhaustion
sleep issues
Are They Worth Protecting?
'I really miss school': 71,000 children in UK struggling with long Covid:
"Rob Schneider is an occupational therapist at the clinic. He tells me that long Covid causes a huge range of chronic symptoms in the children he treats, but that the kind of symptoms Imani has - "the fatigue, the brain fog, the difficulties with transitioning back to school" are fairly common."
‘Exhausting & Painful'. Children & Young People Describe Their Long Covid:
Excellent descriptive article from Dr. Sue Peters from the LONG COViD KiDS Blog.
For the many children and families affected by Long Covid, Long Covid can seem like the elephant in the room. The 119,000 children and young people living with Long COVID (Office of National Statistics) want to tell you how it feels and what it is like for them.
One of many descriptive "elephants in the room" from the blog article.
Children as young as six months of age are at risk of developing long COVID. A Nature study found nearly a quarter of children who get COVID will develop long-term symptoms. Most children recover from COVID (some at faster rates than adults), according to UNICEF, but symptoms may linger for some. Dr. Amanda Morrow, a pediatric rehabilitation physician told CNN the main long COVID symptom she sees in children is “severe fatigue.” According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, other symptoms of long COVID in children include muscle ache, stomach pain, difficulty concentrating, loss of taste and smell, a rash, pain and circulation issues.
Page in Progress
Violation Against Children
Children have almost no way to protect themselves and do not get to choose where they go and what they are exposed to. They are incredibly vulnerable as a result. Their health is shaped by the people around them and the air in the spaces they are forced to occupy. @BlakeMMurdoch
Opinion: Treating kids as invulnerable is treating them as disposable:
"As grief counsellors often point out, death is a natural part of life. However, death can be hidden and ignored in our society, in favour of a sort of blissful ignorance.
“Death is not the main risk facing most children. Disability is. Children are facing new risks from disease that most of us did not have to grow up with.”
I am saying we should acknowledge reality and fix it. COVID changed the world and trying to force “normalcy” without changing anything is going to perpetually end in tragedy for many.
The White House COVID response co-ordinator candidly admitted that the current approach means winters will be disease-ridden for the foreseeable future, and inability to access health care will harm many patients in need.
In spite of all the evidence for caution, we are now tossing children into a world with nearly zero protections.
Disability is also ignored in much the same way as death. When you go out in public, most people seem fine. This is both because disability can be invisible and because you are only seeing a sliver of the real world.
I point this out because death is not the main risk facing most children. Disability is. Children are facing new risks from disease that most of us did not have to grow up with.
Research shows the risks of harm and disability from COVID infection are serious, and risks accumulate with additional reinfections.
We fundamentally do not know the extent of the long-term damage continual reinfection with COVID will cause to children, and the data we have so far are upsetting. What are we willing to risk?"