Hospitalisation Rates in Children

[ClimbDad]

Mumsnet removed a thread discussing hospitalisation and risks to children following the LBC interview with the hospital matron.

The Department of Health publishes hospitalisation figures by age. Daily hospitalisation of children is currently averaging 40 to 50 admissions.

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare?areaType=nation&areaName=England

The admissions criteria is designed to exclude children who are in hospital for other reasons and catch Covid-19.

I don’t know what we consider an acceptable level of risk. We haven’t had that conversation as a country, but I feel sorry for the hundreds of families living through this horrific experience every week.

@mrshoho

I do agree *@MushMonster* that it needs investigating and reviewing and it is potentially worrying. I do wonder though if the lockdown in November was detrimental to our kids as the virus was able to take hold in the schools whilst a large amount of the population was distancing. The virus looks for a host and if children are the nearest they get it. I believe scientists are looking at this side also. Until recently the attitude in this country was to let the kids crack on and we have not protected them as we should have. I'm angry about it.

I think they will have to re-think the lockdown approach as they get more data. And whether we may have to change it, so to avoid herding the virus towards specific groups of the population. Also, the vaccines are not approved for children. So, it cannot be sorted by changing the vaccination priorities when it comes to them.

People who work in paediatric are telling you it’s not true. So who to believe - comment on twitter or paediatricians?

And that's why I don't use Twitter
BTW many thanks for taking the time to check with your own paediatric department - good to hear your reassurance

OK so my Maths is not great, but that chart shows total admissions since the pandemic began of 3,153 under-18s, out of a total 226,278 admissions, which is 1.4%. That doesn't strike me as being especially alarming. That doesn't mean that it's not very sad and scary for those children and their families but it doesn't merit the panic that tweet inspired.

We should worry more about the impact of asymptomatically or mildly symptomatically infected under-18s in transmitting disease to others, than the risk to the under-18s themselves, looking at the statistics.

I'm more worried about the high numbers of 18-64 year olds.

Oh, and apologies for mis-spelling paediatrics - I always get that one wrong

Interestingly there are lots of local young people's football and rugby matches on today in Leicester.

This is apparently ok, even with 15 minutes of full contact rugby which involves children from 16 different schools across the match.

I'm not sure why this is ok if schools have had to close.

@Pomegranatespompom

People who work in paediatric are telling you it’s not true. So who to believe - comment on twitter or paediatricians?

I have really appreciated your comments

It is really hard to know what to do. My dc13 has Type 1 Diabetes and Hypothyroidism. He has been going into school as the advice from school and his consultant was that children (even those with two autoimmune diseases) are less vulnerable to the negative effects of Covid.

I am reluctantly accepted their advice up until now but no one can give me any proper stats on how children with serious underlying health conditions have coped with Covid.

I feel as though my child has been forgotten in all this, while my unpleasant elderly mother will get a vaccine, online shops and neighbors/family members running around after her.

Pisses me off.

@reprehensibleme

The op has form and has been starting scaremongering threads for months.

If you don't want to read discussions, don't look on a discussion board. Especially as people may have different opinions to you.

Also, the stats do tell us that Diabetes, particularly Type 1 can out as one of the major death risks from Covid. But apparently, my son will be immune from those risks because he is still a child.

I will be keeping him at home and his siblings over the next few weeks because I don't feel I can trust the medical professionals which is sad...

I think we need to watch this carefully and gather facts.

It is concerning that there was a considerable advantage for children over adults of not being affected so much by this virus, and the new variant appears to have diminished this advantage.

We need to make schools as safe as possible to diminish transmission within schools and that means doing things differently (and using masks etc)

People who work in paediatric are telling you it’s not true. So who to believe - comment on twitter or paediatricians? It can be perfectly true that one paediatrician says it isn't a problem in their hospital and another paediatrician says it is a problem in their hospital.

@ancientgran paediatrics have been merged into the main trusts in London. Information is shared to help clinical care and management of beds. It is very unlikely that there is a paediatric crisis that I’m not aware of.
Sorry quick answer - will try and post later.

I have to say I found the BMJ article linked by previous pps quite chilling. Saying that there’s more level playing field in contagiousness of the disease is saying that the chance of kids getting seriously sick has increased many times and astronomically increased if we let run riot. For me 99.9% chance of survival is very low. My daughter’s school has over 1000 pupils. I would never have chosen a school that told me they have done cost and benefit analysis and thought it is ok to have one dead child on average.

For me 99.9% chance of survival is very low

Would it perhaps help to remember that it's likely to be higher than that, given the countless people who've had the virus and never knew?
Or that, even with the "new strain", there are very many families and workplaces where one person's tested positive but nobody else has caught it?

Few of us are oblivious to the risks, but as with so much else a lot comes down to perception

@herecomesthsun

I think we need to watch this carefully and gather facts.

It is concerning that there was a considerable advantage for children over adults of not being affected so much by this virus, and the new variant appears to have diminished this advantage.

We need to make schools as safe as possible to diminish transmission within schools and that means doing things differently (and using masks etc)

Exactly this!

I’m 40 something and when I did an on-line calculation it told me my risk of dying from Covid (were I to catch it) was about one in five thousand. I’d imagine the risk is much much lower for children, even those with underlying conditions. But we do need facts in order to gain perspective and make informed decisions..

www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/10/06/what-is-your-risk-of-dying-from-covid-19/?sh=da802b861592

If I’ve done my maths right the risk of a child who has caught Covid dying of it according to this is about one in 33,000. I realise there are many other considerations- I am not using this as an argument re schools etc - but it helps to quieten my mind about my worst fears, so I thought it might help others..

@PurpleDaisies

This tweet might be reassuring...

I agree. I think the matron was trying to make a point and probably didnt realise how her comments were going to be taken in the current climate. Personally I dont feel there was any context to her original comment and her agenda was to stop people from mixing. Unfortunately she has caused a lot of worry for a lot of parents. As I've said multiple time before. Yes there is a greater number of children being tested positive for the virus but only because they are going to school and mixing with others. No other part of society is doing this on a regular basis. There is no evidence that the new variant is more severe for children, or that it is better at infecting kids. They are being infected because they are mixing on regular basis.

mobile.twitter.com/CheungRonny/status/1345307828119089152
Not sure if this will work

And this tweet

It's interesting that this OP popped up when schools were closed in the summer and now again today - think they may have an agenda. From a union perhaps?

When we have enough data on the new strain or rates since the new strain started to become dominant, it'll be interesting to hear David Spiegelhalter on whether the risks have changed.

It is concerning that there was a considerable advantage for children over adults of not being affected so much by this virus, and the new variant appears to have diminished this advantage.

Exactly this. There's no point quoting statistics just yet because we simply don't know enough to be confident, either about the course of illness in children or the resources available to treat the higher numbers of patients.

It's interesting that this OP popped up when schools were closed in the summer and now again today - think they may have an agenda. From a union perhaps?

Yes, that’s been long suspected.

I also recall him giving a teacher some very specific employment advice on a different topic.

@Orangeblossom77777

It's interesting that this OP popped up when schools were closed in the summer and now again today - think they may have an agenda. From a union perhaps?

Thought the same. Dumped another scaremongering thread about kids, got everyone wound up and never returned!