Children and covid study

[TheTallOakTrees]

I checked before starting a new thread. Some might be interested in a story about a report looking at covid in children, which I found on the BBC website today

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57766717

The main findings are:

"The overall risk of children becoming severely ill or dying from Covid is extremely low, a new analysis of Covid infection data confirms.
Data from the first 12 months of the pandemic in England shows 25 under-18s died from Covid, putting the overall risk of death at around two in a million children, scientists estimate.
Those living with chronic illnesses and neuro-disabilities were most at risk."

'Hospital stays rare'
Separately, scientists considered all children and young people in England who had an emergency hospital admission for Covid up to February 2021:

Some 5,800 children were admitted with the virus, compared to about 367,600 admitted for other emergencies (excluding injuries)
About 250 required intensive care
There were 690 children admitted for a rare inflammatory condition linked to Covid, called paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS-TS)
Though the absolute risks were still small, children living with multiple conditions, those who were obese, and young people with heart and neurological illnesses were most at risk
Lead researcher Prof Russell Viner said complex decisions around vaccinating and shielding children required input from many sources - not their work alone.

Sorry for posting in bits. At least for people worried there are some details now

"England's public health data and found most of the young people who had died of Covid-19 had underlying health conditions:

Around 15 had life-limiting or underlying conditions, including 13 living with complex neuro-disabilities
Six had no underlying conditions recorded in the last five years - though researchers caution some illnesses may have been missed
A further 36 children had a positive Covid test at the time of their death but died from other causes, the analysis suggests
Though the overall risks were still low, children and young people who died were more likely to be over the age of 10 and of Black and Asian ethnicity."

just demonstrates again that many people have got a completely skewed view of risk

Very sad for those families: commiserations to them.

Overall a reassuring statistic.

Well I have 2 children with complex needs and neurological conditions and both have lung scarring and one needs a bipap and oxygen at night so this confirms what I already knew. Children like mine would be most at risk and now restrictions on masksand social distancing are being scrapped we are forced into house arrest again!

I don't know why they won't let parents like us make our own decisions on vaccinating our kids! It is the obvious solution and i would be happy to take the risk of vacination if indeed there even are any. I see no evidence to suggest there would be anyway.
People keep saying the vulnerable are all vaccinated so let's crack on but it isn't true for children! We have been ignored throughout this whole pandemic!

@flapjackfairy

Well I have 2 children with complex needs and neurological conditions and both have lung scarring and one needs a bipap and oxygen at night so this confirms what I already knew. Children like mine would be most at risk and now restrictions on masksand social distancing are being scrapped we are forced into house arrest again! I don't know why they won't let parents like us make our own decisions on vaccinating our kids! It is the obvious solution and i would be happy to take the risk of vacination if indeed there even are any. I see no evidence to suggest there would be anyway. People keep saying the vulnerable are all vaccinated so let's crack on but it isn't true for children! We have been ignored throughout this whole pandemic!

I hope they let you make our own decision urgently. Some children really do need vaccinating in front of others.

"Though the overall risks were still low, children and young people who died were more likely to be over the age of 10 and of Black and Asian ethnicity."

This really scared me, my dc is over age of 10, mixed race(Asian), and have underlying conditions.
Really hope they start vaccinating children, at least cv/cev, soon.

The timing feels a bit propaganda-ish but my question would be what kind of rates of long term damage (long covid) are we seeing in children? Covid is going to be in circulation forever more with the likelihood of reinfection high, so to my mind an infection that leaves a child with damage leaves them more vulnerable to serious consequences of reinfection because their category will have changed to having an underlying condition iyswim.

I’m not convinced we can only take one part of the picture on board in the current circumstances of letting rates of infection rise without mitigation.

Our youngest had it to help protect CEV loved ones by reducing their personal risk of transmission, I imagine that will be the choice for a lot of healthy youngsters.

Otherwise, yes, good to read some better news.

This isn't really news is it?
It's been 15 months that we've known that Covid is unlikely to be serious for most children.
Had you not seen anything about it before OP?

There have been three child deaths in the last three days though which is worrying. It is still a tiny percentage though and hopefully just coincidental.
The issue of CEV children still needs to be addressed. They cannot be forced into schools with 0 mitigation it just isn't right. At the very least they need to bring back sheilding with financial support for children and also adult CEV who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons.

@Cornettoninja

The timing feels a bit propaganda-ish but my question would be what kind of rates of long term damage (long covid) are we seeing in children? Covid is going to be in circulation forever more with the likelihood of reinfection high, so to my mind an infection that leaves a child with damage leaves them more vulnerable to serious consequences of reinfection because their category will have changed to having an underlying condition iyswim.

I’m not convinced we can only take one part of the picture on board in the current circumstances of letting rates of infection rise without mitigation.

Yes there has been no mention of the risk of long covid in the news on this study.

This study makes no reference to long covid. Its really only looking at hospitalisation and death.

I thought they said all along kids have virtually no risk?

@Foobydoo

There have been three child deaths in the last three days though which is worrying. It is still a tiny percentage though and hopefully just coincidental. The issue of CEV children still needs to be addressed. They cannot be forced into schools with 0 mitigation it just isn't right. At the very least they need to bring back sheilding with financial support for children and also adult CEV who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons.

I can't find that anywhere. Do you have a link?

@flapjackfairy

Well I have 2 children with complex needs and neurological conditions and both have lung scarring and one needs a bipap and oxygen at night so this confirms what I already knew. Children like mine would be most at risk and now restrictions on masksand social distancing are being scrapped we are forced into house arrest again! I don't know why they won't let parents like us make our own decisions on vaccinating our kids! It is the obvious solution and i would be happy to take the risk of vacination if indeed there even are any. I see no evidence to suggest there would be anyway. People keep saying the vulnerable are all vaccinated so let's crack on but it isn't true for children! We have been ignored throughout this whole pandemic!

Children have largely been ignored throughout this past 15 months. It's a disgrace that schools ever closed.

I won't be allowing my dc to be vaccinated but for children like yours I can absolutely see the benefits outweigh the risk. I hope they say children don't need vaccinating unless vulnerable.

I agree the timing of this article is interesting. Even if DCs aren't badly affected, they can still pass covid on to others who may be...plus the long covid question..other countries have vaccinated the over 12s so again we're doing our own thing by not vaccinating...

"I hope they say children don't need vaccinating unless vulnerable."

Well I hope they don't. Because it means virus will still be spreading through out school, and bring up the risk of those vulnerable higher. I get that this is a selfish wish by parent of vulnerable child. So I respect your view.

But from the survey results posted the other day, majority of parents wants their kids vaccinated. Parents of vulnerable kids might worry more severe cases, but it's not totally risk free for healthy kids too.
So, I think everyone should have choice.

Two deaths on 6th July and one in the 7th in the 10 to 18 age bracket.
Children are very low risk though in general.
I just want some sort of acknowledgement and plan for CEV Children as they seem to have been forgotten.

@Geamhradh

This isn't really news is it? It's been 15 months that we've known that Covid is unlikely to be serious for most children. Had you not seen anything about it before OP?

What you think you know and what an actual study shows with evidence is quite different.

Don't you know that?

@Foobydoo

Could you provide a more authoritative article on the 3 children please? A 20 year old on Twitter isn't my go-to source for science tbf.

I'll take that as a no.

@Foobydoo

That's a lot for children in a very short period of time and doesn't match the long term data. Do you have a link to the article or source please?

COVID deaths figures in England here: www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

"COVID 19 total announced deaths 09 July 2021" has a breakdown by age group.

In the 0-19 category I see the three most recent deaths as 2nd July (1), 1st July (1) and 25th June (1). The data from 4th July onwards is incomplete at present.

The screenshots posted by Foobydoo actually refer to the data as being correct as of 1st and 2nd July, so the figures do match.