Why are children suddenly more susceptible?

[WineGetsMeThroughIt]

I've been hearing a lot lately about how now with so many vaccinated more and more children are being seen in the ER and getting reactions to Covid. But why? Is it the Delta variant? Are they just testing more? Previously the govt would report children aren't really impacted by covid hence they don't need to wear masks etc, but now as it seems infections and serious side effects / deaths are being cut in the adult vax'd population all of a sudden children have been made as more prominent carriers and sufferers of covid. But why? Is this just media saying so? Is the delta variant worse for kids? Why is it that now they seem to care more about the infections with children than before??

We have secondary school children in schools with no really social distancing and a couple of weeks ago were told they nolonger needed masks.

Got to keep the fear up. Now that they can no longer tell the children that they will kill Granny, they need to make them scared for themselves.

@AfternoonToffee I agree I don’t know one single child who’s been sick from Covid or long Covid. I know there will be a small minority but you come on here you would thinks it millions 🙄

As far as i can tell the game changer has been the regular use of lateral flow tests picking up asymptomatic or mild covid cases in schools which then leads to mass isolation / PCR testing picking up cases in children who were close contacts. This makes it seem like there are more cases but in fact there is just more testing.

AFAIK there has not been a huge number of children hospitalised by Covid - just come through a local outbreak - kids had extremely mild, if any symptoms. Most transmission was from adult (teacher) to children rather than between children.

If the rest of Europe & US vaccinates their 12-16 year olds then our 12-16 year olds will not be allowed into those countries either next summer, nor to the US. Plus there is disruption to education if secondary aged kids need to continue to self isolate if they have not been vaccinated. There comes a tipping point where vaccinating all 12-16 year olds makes sense. I think that is why the decision has not been made yet (plus we are due more Pfizer supplies in the autumn so they will need to decide whether to use on teenagers or boosters for elderly/CEV/CV, if the original vaccine even works for that). If suddenly more teenagers do end up in hospital then they will shift to vaccinating them.
Our GP thinks both my boys had long Covid last summer - one ended up with viral fatigue and anxiety for months, the other with shingles. It is quite possible that the data for children just is not there yet. Many people have not want to “bother” their GP this last year. It was drilled into us, emergencies only.

Everything Ive seen is that its more contagious but much less troubling - main symptom seems to be a sore throat or headache - basically nothing you would even keep them off school for pre-covid.

I think flu will be a bigger problem for children this winter.

@Sunnyfreezesushi I got the impression Pfizer would be used to boost the immunity in the first few vulnerable groups that had AZ. I could be way off the mark but that’s the impression I got from listening to various interviews. Of course that plan would also be subject to change depending on what the situation looks like in the autumn and what the best strategy at the time might be.

@palacegirl77

"Everything Ive seen is that its more contagious but much less troubling - main symptom seems to be a sore throat or headache - basically nothing you would even keep them off school for pre-covid."

Do you have a source for this? I've seen numerous reports that delta is about twice as likely to cause serious illness as the Kent variant. I have literally seen nothing to say it is less troubling or virulent.

[quote Whatshouldicallme]@palacegirl77

"Everything Ive seen is that its more contagious but much less troubling - main symptom seems to be a sore throat or headache - basically nothing you would even keep them off school for pre-covid."

Do you have a source for this? I've seen numerous reports that delta is about twice as likely to cause serious illness as the Kent variant. I have literally seen nothing to say it is less troubling or virulent.[/quote]
Sure thing. Obviously Im talking about the effect on children here (taking into account that the majority of adults have been vaccinated and the vaccines are seemingly good at keeping hospitalisations at bay). Here is the full article from the British Medical Journal...

www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1513

So in terms of risk to my child, I would view it as that they are more likely now to catch it than previously, but (because they have no other health issues) theyre not more likely to become seriously ill, and even the symptoms of the delta variant have been changed in several countries (not uk yet) to show sore throat, headache, sneezes. So nothing I would worry about in my children and as myself and partner are double vaxed I dont think we are at any greater risk.

Hope that helps :-)

Ive also copied this paragraph from that report in terms of the risk to children:

Are more children becoming ill?

Steve Turner, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health registrar and consultant paediatrician at Royal Aberdeen Children’s hospital, said, “As it stands there are very few children in hospital in Scotland and across the whole of the UK due to covid. We’re not seeing any evidence of an increase in paediatric admissions with covid. A very small number of admissions who test positive for covid is what we’d expect.

“Our experience over the last 15 months is that many children who test positive have come into hospital for something else, like broken bones. At the moment the situation in the UK is stable. The number of children in hospital with covid remains very low.”

Children are currently an easier spread point as their social connections are more normalised than many adults at present. Thank goodness they are now allowed back to sport and social activities as the headlines today are stating the obvious about the negative impacts of lockdown on children's obseity rates, itself a long term health risk.

The risk of serious and long term consequences of Covid to children remains very low. As long as cases are flagged up through testing rather than being ill enough to require medical attention then there isn't a significant problem. The practical problem is policies of isolation that draw out the spread of cases rather than allowing school age pupils to naturally develop immunity and let an outbreak pass quickly within a few weeks. Vaccination of the adult population has slashed the risks in the wider community.

@palacegirl77

Everything Ive seen is that its more contagious but much less troubling - main symptom seems to be a sore throat or headache - basically nothing you would even keep them off school for pre-covid.

Losing taste or having a cough wasn't something that would normally keep you off work either...

Although the mild Delta symptoms are ones we are very familiar with, it's doesn't mean that it can't be serious. Indeed the data suggests it seems even more likely to give serious symptoms than earlier variants, though thankfully most of the vulnerable are now fully vaccinated.

I think it’s an agenda the government wants to push. Herd immunity can only be achieved through vaccinating children; the vaccines will cause a small number of deaths in children and so they want people to accept that using fear, akin to the AZ vaccine clotting issue.

This

"They have said they are not going to be offering it to children any time soon as children in general are less badly affected by covid and they feel more information is needed on vaccine complications for children."

We apparently need about 90% of the population covered for herd immunity, more than originally thought so doesn't that mean children will have to be done as well? It's happening in other countries and I can't see the UK being the only country not considering it.
On the other hand, my suspicions go the other way: at one point the government were trying to give the impression not only that children don't suffer badly from it, which is true, but also that they don't spread it, which I don't think is true.

@Hamilbamil I was specifically talking about the risk to children as I linked the BMJ article above which states it is no more risk to them than previous connotations in terms of serious health problems. Covid (as a whole) remains a mild illness in children and the new variant is no more troubling.

To coin a phrase, well to quote a song really.

If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.

@palacegirl77

That it an interesting article from bmj and one I hadn't ready yet so thanks for sharing your source.

I do think it is a bit misleading to summarise the information in that article as saying that the delta variant is more transmissible but "less troubling" than alpha. I think what that article says is that alpha was low risk to children and the delta is also relatively low risk. To me there is nothing in that article that says it's any less risk to children and if it is indeed more dangerous for adults and vulnerable children then that is more troubling for everyone.

@BogRollBOGOF

Children are currently an easier spread point as their social connections are more normalised than many adults at present. Thank goodness they are now allowed back to sport and social activities as the headlines today are stating the obvious about the negative impacts of lockdown on children's obseity rates, itself a long term health risk.

The risk of serious and long term consequences of Covid to children remains very low. As long as cases are flagged up through testing rather than being ill enough to require medical attention then there isn't a significant problem. The practical problem is policies of isolation that draw out the spread of cases rather than allowing school age pupils to naturally develop immunity and let an outbreak pass quickly within a few weeks. Vaccination of the adult population has slashed the risks in the wider community.

BOGOF, sorry, to clarify your post here, are you suggesting that Covid-positive children should be allowed to continue their social activities as normal in the community?

@DumplingsAndStew

So many conspiracy loons here.

Go on then, what reason do the Government have to desperately want children vaccinated for no benefit?

Here's Matt Hancock on video talking about making vaccinations compulsory and implying they'll just be given to kids when they go into school: twitter.com/PoliticsPunked/status/1405665680632975374

The WHO are recommending that under 18 do not get the covid vaccines "for the moment".

"Children should not be vaccinated for the moment.

There is not yet enough evidence on the use of vaccines against COVID-19 in children to make recommendations for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Children and adolescents tend to have milder disease compared to adults. However, children should continue to have the recommended childhood vaccines."

@Dustyboots

Children are not suddenly more susceptible.

This

@KiaTheSecond

That still does not answer my question, which I've asked many times over the past months and never received a reasonable answer for.

For what reason do you believe the Government want to push vaccination? As in, why do they want it? What's in it for them?

I’m surprised you haven’t had an answer to that dumplings: it is pretty obvious. This isn’t pro or anti vaccines, just an answer.

When it is the government doing the analysis of vaccinations, they are generally looking at the cost. No matter how much every government might claim to care, it all boils down to money in the end. Even when they spend it, it is in order to make future savings.

So they will consider the cost to the economy caused by lockdowns and closures of businesses and schools and parents needing to take time off and juxtapose this against the tiny number of children permanently affected by vaccines and how much it costs to look after them for life, especially given vaccine damage payments tends to be a long and hard win battle. When you look at the numbers, it is clear that the government's calculation will show the benefit on a population level far outweighs the risk.

The cost we analyse is different on an individual level, in other words, when you consider your own children. The benefit is not testing positive for coronavirus, which many children don’t even know they have had. The cost that just might be lifelong disability is perhaps not something parents are willing to undertake if the disease is not perceived as terribly dangerous. And that’s probably a dilemma for everyone under the age of about fifty, at the moment.

@TheClaws, I read @BogRollBOGOF s comment as 2 separate points.

1 that children have been out of sports and activities for so long it's good that they are now back as the long term impacts of lack of sport and activity on children is now being talked about

2 That the biggest detriment to our children at the moment is the amount of isolation which disrupts everything in their lives

Not that covid positive kids should carry on as normal but that an alternative to isolating multiple children, multiple times when another child has tested positive, when the likelihood that they have also picked it up is quite low.

It would be interesting to know how many people identified as contacts in this way then went on to develop covid.

@Ozanj

There is no increase in children being hospitalized or in ICU at all. The government is deliberately misrepresenting statistics to bring in child vaccinations.

This.

I'm so cross about it. Just watched GMB and Doctor Hilary actually gave incorrect information (which was rebuffed and he apologised) The angle they are coming from now is - have your child vaccinated so they can stop school isolation. There was one presenter who didn't want her kids to have it as was cut off every single time.

It was never about schools is was always about 'save the NHS'