Brasil varient affecting young children

[FatCatThinCat]

On ITV Dr Hilary said that in Brazil 852 children under the age of 9 have died from Covid in the last six weeks and 518 of them were under one years old. Is this down to the mutation or environmental factors, does anyone know? It's extremely worrying.

www.indy100.com/politics/dr-hilary-pub-landlord-starmer-b1834262?fbclid=IwAR2jrIepaxkJ6qNRo3zg8PQNSuwAvgJGaUG8YcV4pikZ01o33QV1LeOa6As

I can only find the figure for 0-17 which is 258.

OK, so absolutely tragic for each and every one of those families, but not on the same scale as the number of children who have sadly passes away in Brazil.

I suspect that poverty is a major factor in explaining the difference. I sincerely hope that it isn't a case of the Brazilian variant being more dangerous for the young.

Either way, I feel terribly sad for all those families who have lost loved ones in this awful pandemic.

It's a numbers game - the proportion of children and younger adults affected is still small but if you let the virus run rampant, then more people of all ages will be affected. This is why the suggestion that still comes up that we could have just shielded the vulnerable and let everyone else live without restrictions is so misguided.

The healthcare system and living conditions in Brazil are also awful in many parts of the country so it isn't surprising the virus has a bigger impact there if the children are already not in great health when they catch covid.

There are huge issues related to poverty in Brazil. Many of the children who've died will have been dealing with malnourishment. It sounds so tragic over there, I can't even imagine what they're experiencing, but I don't think there is any evidence that that variant is more dangerous to young children (that I've read anyway)

Their child mortality rate is 12.4 per thousand generally speaking. In the Uk we're at 3.9 and Japan is 1.9, out of interest.

It is what has happened overall with the virus in Brazil as opposed to the variant itself. The Kent variant was more infectious for children but we havent seen the kind of numbers Brazil has. So environment plays a huge part

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-56696907

Is a really sad story but I think one that highlights the differences hetween here and Brazil

I also think that Brazil has a higher infant mortality overall.

I bet some of the covid-19 deaths are linked to malnutrition and other environmental factors due to poverty.

@paralysedbyinertia

Incidentally, I read that there have been quite a lot of children hospitalized in India too. Not sure about deaths.

I suspect that poverty and overall health is probably a factor, as well as access to appropriate health care.

This

[quote FatCatThinCat]On ITV Dr Hilary said that in Brazil 852 children under the age of 9 have died from Covid in the last six weeks and 518 of them were under one years old. Is this down to the mutation or environmental factors, does anyone know? It's extremely worrying.

www.indy100.com/politics/dr-hilary-pub-landlord-starmer-b1834262?fbclid=IwAR2jrIepaxkJ6qNRo3zg8PQNSuwAvgJGaUG8YcV4pikZ01o33QV1LeOa6As[/quote]
Brazil has over 200 million people and greater rates of deprevation. Their situation cannot be compared to ours and we simply aren't going to see large numbers of children die of covid here.

We just aren't.

@WouldBeGood

Dr Hilary is a massive fuckwit.

He’s also warned about the dangers of washing your car.

I’d ignore any guff about Covid spouted by the non experts on these morning shows.

Agreed he's a twat. Spouting off last year telling people not to have their gardeners round whilst he's sat there on a very generous pay packet when he should be retired.

It's very sad but I'm not concerned for the UK. Brazil is a poor country, they are overwhelmed with Covid and their healthcare system isn't great to begin with, it won't be coping right now.

Everything I've read suggest malnourishment combined with an overwhelmed health service and some lack of awareness that covid can affect children and how it can do so plus huge number of infections mean small % producing large number of deaths.

Sad as it is I don't think it's applicable to UK.

It is totally applicable to the UK - if we were to just let the virus spread uncontrollably and overwhelm the NHS. I hate to burst your bubble but child overty and malnourishment is a reality in the UK too. Luckily our politicians and the public saw sense and have acted to control spread.

@Porcupineintherough

It is totally applicable to the UK - if we were to just let the virus spread uncontrollably and overwhelm the NHS. I hate to burst your bubble but child overty and malnourishment is a reality in the UK too. Luckily our politicians and the public saw sense and have acted to control spread.

Yes but that still isnt about variants changing and mutating to hit children more and still about environmental factors

Numbers without context are utterly meaningless at population level.
How many children in Brazil die each day on average and from what causes? If you don't know that - and I'm sure Dr H hasn't a clue - spouting about one particular cause of death is meaningless scaremongering.

These children have been killed by poverty, essentially, as so many millions of children are globally each year.
It's only the associated covid that means people are noticing and finding it sad.

Are you suggesting that these are babies that would have died under 1 anyway, MaxNormal and that it isn’t covid that killed them?

No I'm suggesting that they wouldn't have died of covid if poverty and malnourishment weren't a factor.
Just as they wouldn't die of many, many other diseases under the age of one if poverty, malnourishment, access to clean water etc were not a factor globally. Which happens in the millions each year to generanl extreme indifference in the west.
Covid, though. Covid is special. That's a sad death.