Children die???

[hoolydooly]

The WHO apparently said today that children have died of coronavirus (according to a BBC summary of the WHO press conference).

Until now, it's been said that there has been only one child death, sad though that obviously is, in the 10-19 years old range. Zero deaths in the 0-9 range.

So where did this statement come from? I have seen no figures to back it up - the figures from China, and Italy contradict it completely.

Where did this statement come from?
Has it been misquoted, in fact?
If it's true, what is actually going on?

I heard this too. Pretty worrying. Coming from WHO it should hold some validity. But its a concern that if this is the case drastic steps are not being made and these deaths are being underreported by media outlets

I was listening to the live broadcast and he definitely said children die, I was so surprised I text my sister about it. All we have heard otherwise is how children don't get it badly etc,hence keeping schools open. Now I don't know what to think as there doesn't seem to be anything reported aside from that.

Do you really think China would admit to the deaths of children from this disease?

Exactly what I think @Aquamarine1029

They contained it for 5 fucking weeks. First patient in Nov and they informed WHO only on Dec 31st.

Fuck them, they're liars.

*by contained I obviously mean hid

I read something earlier about it being Chinese school holidays so children were not at school - therefore protected and didn't die. Not the case in Europe so that information is only just coming out

Clarification: Children & young adults have been infected w/ #COVID19, though at lower rates than older adults.
While the vast majority have experienced mild disease, some have experienced severe or critical disease & some young adults & one child, that we are aware of, has died.
mobile.twitter.com/WHO/status/1239687429952503808

In an article about increasing production of ventilators, it mentioned that they were needing (lots) more child ventilators too.

obviously children with serious immuno conditions or a very seroius heart disorder, may die (same as aduts) - that was probably the case.

Children catch it, but far fewer die

IIRC, no under 10s. One 10-19 out of just under 600 confirmed cases, so case fatality rate of 0.1% (about the same as measles in a well nourished population). No word on lasting damage from any complications

Report I saw from China CDC gave case fatality rate of 0.2 for 10- 19 yr olds included in their data, the same rate as for people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Doesn't seem to go with the impression we have been getting.

I expect the WHO will be asked for further info on this. I think it can be taken that children get this illness very mildly for the most part. No one is safe from it though.

Source for above

I note I got it wrong, rate is higher for people in 40s. I must have subconsciously revised that down in my memory, being in my 40s!

Yes, Doctor Maria Van Kerkhove states that children have died; unfortunately, there is no context given - no figures regarding how many, their ages or if they had underlying conditions.

Summary:

• Children seem to be infected (in terms of symptomatic infection/detection) at a lower rate than adults.
• From the evidence, not seeing transmission in settings like schools; don't seem overly worried about amplification of infection in schools.
• Tend to have mild infection/disease.
• "We have seen children die". (Note: "children", plural.)
• Therefore, can't say universally that infection is mild in children.
• Important that we protect children (vulnerable population).
• The extent of asymptomatic infection is not yet known.
• Waiting for results to determine what role children play regarding transmission.

So... vulnerable, can die, yet mild or no symptoms and fine to go to school. It's a bit of a mixed message.

Here's a peer-reviewed article with more information (PDF): COVID-19 in Children: Initial Characterization of the Pediatric Disease

Parents of young children should take note of this part in particular:
There is also evidence of fecal shedding in the stool for several weeks after diagnosis, leading to concern about fecal-oral transmission of the virus, particularly for infants and children who are not toilet-trained, and for viral replication in the gastrointestinal tract. Prolonged shedding in nasal secretions and stool has substantial implications for community spread in daycare centers, schools, and in the home.

Which contradicts the WHO's advice regarding children in schools...

Doctor Maria Van Kerkhove starts talking about children at 48:00 in the video. If you click the link (and not the video itself) in my previous post, it'll take you to the exact time. For some reason the video starts from the beginning here.

I thought he meant that children will die because health systems have been overwhelmed and, despite not being at a high risk for coronavirus, children will die of usual causes because they won't get the health care they need.

We all need to understand this is a fast mutating virus. It was only ever animal to animal transmission. Something changed in that food market in Wuhan and it mutated to animal to human transition, and then quickly human to human.
This current strain may be affecting the lungs of the weak and the elderly but we should not be complacent. At any one minute our children could be just as vulnerable. I hate to be negative but I genuinely believe this is capable of wiping out millions upon millions and the goverment clearly do too, hence asking us and the rest of the world to essentially lock ourselves in until we have a vaccination. I think we are not in a good situation at all

No children have died under 9.

It's been known in the 10-19 has had deaths.

However, I believe they werent just talking about covid. They were saying because covid will overwhelm the system, children could die because of the lack of available healthcare. Not covid itself.

We all have to remember that other illness still exist, theres a knock on effect and these illness will still carry on as they do. People will die, of all ages. But it's not all covid.

There was family Facebook spat in a local group at the weekend. One family member said a 7year old in their family had confirmed Corona and was extremely I'll with pneumonia. We werent being told how dangerous it was for children. Someone, else related, came on saying the boy, had the test but had been ill for a long time and it wasnt Corona. That when back and forth and it turned out the test was negative.

The boy has been treated and is now home recovering. It seems that so many people think anything, health wise, happening must definitely be covid.

According to a paper by Imperial's COVID-19 response team the fatality rate is 0.002% (0-9 years) and 0.006% (10-19 years). That's 2 deaths in every 100,000 cases and 6 deaths in every 100,000 cases respectively. What it doesn't say is how many children are likely to catch it. For your individual child it is very very very unlikely they will die, even if they catch it, however, sadly it does look like there will be deaths.

This is the modelling the Government has based its decisions on. I can't work out how to post a link, but it's on the BBC website.

informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/covid-19-coronavirus-infographic-datapack/

My link above has a graph that splits it out by age.

What it does mean is we can’t be complacent as thousands of children have underlying health issues. The good news I guess is that fewer will need treatment in hospital. Very worrying for certain countries though.

Wow, i suppose these types of freak outs are going to be a daily thing.
There is nothing you can do about this but follow government advice. You have no idea what you're doing nor do you have the emotional stability to deal with things objectively.

At the moment the numbers of children even catching it, let alone dying from it, are minuscule. One mustn't be complacent but the odds are very small for now.

What is worrying is the prospect of a child having to be in hospital for anything else at the moment though. I am terrified of the prospect of my DD having to go into hospital as she has asthma. I don't think her chances would be any worse with covid-19 than anyone else's, I just don't want her to have to go in there for any reason at all.