Long covid rare in children

[Bobholll]

Contrary to mumsnet, where long covid is RIFE in children & everyone knows at least 5 who can’t get out of bed, a new study is showing that it’s thankfully rare & most children recover in a week.

The professor also mentions that most those with on-going symptoms recovered over time.

Nice to see they are keeping an eye statistically on this stuff & that it’s very reassuring.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58071898

@illuyankas

Is there evidence that loss of smell of due to brain inflammation? Genuine question as I do not know but did lose my sense of smell post Covid.

@herecomesthsun

So overall children are not the group most affected, thank God.

However, they CAN catch covid, CAN transmit it, CAN have long term effects and very very occasionally DO die from it. (This might seem obvious but all of this was bitterly disputed at different points, including by supposed experts).

The long term effects (and I really dislike the term long Covid actually as it is so vague) are not "rare", if they affect 1 in 50.

It's just the reality.

Agree with all this.

Also my son is 16 and CV so got the vaccine. His neuro said he wasn't actually at greater risk.

It was only when Prof Whitty said those with neuro disability suffer long covid at a higher rate I realised why they have offered this group the vaccine.

I think half the issue is the media takes sentence and runs with a headline - and none of those writing them actually have any real understanding of statistics . And we all know stats can be interpreted to tell someone what you want them to say!

@Walkaround

If a death rate of less than 2% is disastrous for healthcare systems during a pandemic due to the sheer numbers of people getting the virus at the same time, I don’t think 2% of children getting long covid during a pandemic and being refused vaccination whilst the pandemic is still very much ongoing, is particularly good news. That’s an awful lot of children in terms of sheer numbers who will be getting long covid all at the same time.

Good point.

And the tall the death figure is also about people who got covid.

@Mickarooni these are the ones I read recently, but if you google, bunch of articles come up.

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/covid19s-impact-on-the-brain
neurosciencenews.com/covid-neurology-children-18933/
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2766765

Amazing how many people know Consultants who's really so dismissive of their patients. I have never met one. Must be a MN thing.

Wow. If I was cynical I would say this was a coordinated bit of government messaging. Lots of messages at a quiet mumsnet time denying the existence of long covid.
Just wow.

Yeah. Odd.

@wondersun

Wow. If I was cynical I would say this was a coordinated bit of government messaging. Lots of messages at a quiet mumsnet time denying the existence of long covid. Just wow.

Bit over-cynical, I think (though I do see exactly what you mean, and do agree than MN is the quietest I've ever seen it right now)

But there are certainly many, many more right-wingers on MN than there used to be, and of course that's reflected in covid policy posts as much as everywhere else.

2% (1 in 50) seen as low is not that surprising though - look at vasectomy threads where 10% serious complications is seen as totally acceptable, and even the lower figure of 2% (PVPS only) is also usually dismissed as nothing to be concerned about

This study is great news. Really, DC who’ve had covid are not much more likely to have extended symptoms than those who haven’t.

And even then, a DC with a cough after a few weeks is classed as having long covid.

It’s such a shame that activist groups like ‘independent sage’ have got so many parents’ anxiety levels sky high unnecessarily.

@GreenLakes - ? 0.087% who tested negative for covid got symptoms lasting more than 28 days versus 4% who tested positive for covid. That’s considerably more likely!!!

Clearly more research needs to be done, so we don’t have to rely on lack of clear data.

@GreenLakes

This study is great news. Really, DC who’ve had covid are not much more likely to have extended symptoms than those who haven’t.

And even then, a DC with a cough after a few weeks is classed as having long covid.

It’s such a shame that activist groups like ‘independent sage’ have got so many parents’ anxiety levels sky high unnecessarily.

Indeed.

@GreenLakes

This study is great news. Really, DC who’ve had covid are not much more likely to have extended symptoms than those who haven’t.

And even then, a DC with a cough after a few weeks is classed as having long covid.

It’s such a shame that activist groups like ‘independent sage’ have got so many parents’ anxiety levels sky high unnecessarily.

Indie Sage are just as bad as the anti-vaxxers and Covid deniers.

I remember reading a study last year that said that kids (not adults) are more likely to react poorly to influenza than Covid.

It’s such a shame that activist groups like ‘independent sage’ have got so many parents’ anxiety levels sky high unnecessarily.

“Activist group” 😂
Honestly, this just gets more and more ridiculous.

The more I see this kind of post, the more I’m convinced that the people downplaying/denying covid (in adults and in kids) are the ones suffering from sky high anxiety.

Asking for sensible mitigations and research does not equal “anxiety.”

Pretending that a problem doesn’t exist because you can’t cope with it is a far bigger sign of anxiety.

@Walkaround

It’s not unusual at all for the effects of many illnesses to last for a few weeks. I was tired for a number of months after a bout of flu a few years ago.

Also, the problem with self-diagnosis is that there’s no evidence that a particular symptom is actually caused by covid.

If I have it and then happen to have a headache or diarrhoea a few months later, that doesn’t mean covid is the cause!

Many of the people seemingly reporting having long covid have never even tested positive for it!

Yikes that link has alarmed me a bit. It is much much higher than I had supposed.

I think that’s a lot of risk especially given what might be the lack of precautions compared to the previous waves when it was not as dispersed into the community as now.

Our area is double the country average right now and the first ‘natural wave’.

I’ve got questions now I didn’t have before my kids into that situation which is also flu season.

If I was told by school we have measles in the community and the whole class is unvaccinated but don’t worry it’s a mild disease, yes they will probably get it, it spreads as you know but don’t worry it’s unlikely they will get that ill. Hopefully they won’t get flu as well we will have a date for nasal spray at some point. I would be: nope not going!

@GreenLakes
You’re right that many viral infections can have long term effects. So surely not unusual that covid does too?

As for no evidence - sometimes that might be the case, but other symptoms can be medically verified, can be seen to have started at a certain point (with or after the infection) or are a known result of a viral infection (or a covid infection in particular).

A one off case headache or diarrhea wouldn’t be included in the results of this survey, is I’m not sure of the relevance of that comment.

Also not sure what you mean by the last slightly hyperbolic comment either - many? At the start of the pandemic it was impossible to get a test unless you were hospitalised. So if you were one of the unlucky ones to catch it early on then possibly. But sorry, I don’t believe that “many” is accurate. Maybe “some”.

And just out of interest @GreenLakes did you have your flu confirmed at a hospital, with a proper test? Or did you just judge it to be flu with no evidence? How do you know it wasn’t just a really bad cold? Or a different virus?

And are you sure that your tiredness was caused by that illness, or could it have been work stress/the menopause/something else and the timing was just a coincidence?

For what it’s worth, if you say you had flu and felt rubbish after, I believe you. But those questions I’ve just asked you are essentially what you’re doing to anyone having problems after covid.

Quite annoying, isn't it.

Welcome news, though this does not mean children cannot consider the possibility of passing on the virus to adults who then have long Covid. If a few missed or cancelled birthday parties happen and prevent an adult having long Covid, a small inconvenience.

So lovely to have some balance and positivity OP

@GreenLakes - you are the one claiming it is not uncommon in other illnesses and this is good news. I am merely pointing out that your “good news” is saying that long term effects are over four times as common in children with covid than with other illnesses, so your comments do not reflect what is stated in the article. Ie that’s your idea of good news, not mine. In a GCSE or A-level year, I would not want a chance that high of being ill for weeks on end (actually higher, as those figures refer to 5-17 year olds and admit the figures are quite a lot higher for the older end of that ludicrous choice of age spectrum).

As for self-diagnosis, why do you think over-reporting of irrelevancies is more significant than your equally self-reported, unproven assumption that most people are just reporting health irrelevancies that have no effect on their ability to function? The main long term effects are fatigue and headache, anyway, neither of which is great when revising for exams and trying to catch up on 2 years of disrupted education. And fwiw, I work in a primary school and several children have had reasonably significant long term effects - more than 2%, unless you assume 100% of the children have already caught covid, so I am not convinced the figures are reassuring.

"But if you're happy to 'pray' that things will get back to normal then you don't believe in science anyway, right?" Ironically I bet you think you're really clever.

And Independent Sage is an activist group. Activist group isn't necessarily a value judgement and scientists can be activists (unless you somehow believe science can never be political!). Indie Sage say themselves that they publish advice aimed at the UK government which is surely activism - and as a matter of fact they are closely linked with The Citizens, who very much are an activist group. the-citizens.com/activations/

Indie Sage say themselves that they publish advice aimed at the UK government which is surely activism

Well, by that standard, Sage is also an activist group. Which makes the argument of independent sage being an activist group, and therefore bad, a bit… ridiculous. Although to be fair, that poster might think Sage are fear mongering gobshites. Who knows these days.

@PomRuns

So lovely to have some balance and positivity OP

😂 Sorry, as if 90% of the posts on mumsnet about kids and covid aren’t

Kids can’t catch covid!
Well if they do it doesn’t affect them!
Long Covid doesn’t exist!
Any kids who have long covid are lying and/or their parents are lying!
Long covid caused by parents being anxious about covid!

Balance 😂

I wonder if @MNHQ would be interested in moderating posts that outright insult parents of kids who are going through (proper, medically diagnosed, under consultant care) long covid?

Like this gem from earlier in the thread “So many on mn either have it or have children with it, some exaggeration perhaps”

And

“I imagine having parents going on and on about covid with their own anxiety doesn't help children at all.” in relation to this comment “long covid may often be psychosomatic or related to lockdown trauma.”

Posters hopefully wouldn’t say the same about children going through other illness so why is this fair game?