Covid Child Mortality

[Warhertisuff]

A horrible topic I know, but one which parents have a right to be informed accurately about.

I've read that over 100 children have now died of Covid in the U.K. However, that doesn't seem to square with the stats I can find. The ONS data below suggests that there have been 14 deaths of children under 14 since February, and 4 school aged children under 14 since the start of autumn term. I appreciate the pandemic has been here since before last February but even so.... especially since infections in schools have only really skyrocketed
since summer half term and through into this term.

Obviously all child deaths are tragic, but in order to determine our response, we need to know whether deaths are as prevalent as other diseases such as meningitis or other causes such as traffic accidents, or whether we are talking another level of magnitude.

www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc1470/age/wrapper/datadownload.xlsx

Letting it rip in schools is also going to impact these children’s families. The grandparents who are doing the childcare and school runs, and clinically vulnerable and pregnant parents.

It’s harming kids if they bring COVID home then witness parents and grandparents get seriously ill or die.

We have covid rates that are so much higher than many parts of the world due to our failure to put in basic mitigations in schools. It’s criminal.

Basic protective measures like ventilation (proper, monitored ventilation) in classrooms actually improve education and reduce disruption not only for covid.

A study was done recently (I think it was a Trisha Greenhaigh one) which showed that classrooms which were well ventilated compared to unventilated resulted in less absence and better overall educational attainment (i.e. higher grades for the cohort in the ventilated classrooms).

And it affects children's mental health when their classmates are dropping like flies and many of them are very ill and only in school intermittently after covid. It's scary and they feel abandoned by the adults.

We're much more likely to end up in lockdown by not ventilating now.

Cutting off your nose to spite your face comes to mind.

(It may have been Trisha Greenhaigh who retweeted it and it's not actually one she was involved with - I don't have time to look it up).

OP from reading other ONS / scientific data, other respiratory illness also result in the deaths of children at a similiar level. Please see the link below.
www.statista.com/statistics/970800/influenza-deaths-by-age-and-gender-england-wales/
I really don't understand the need to focus on Covid without providing context

Ah OK so this thread is actually about lobbying for children to get the Covid vaccination.

Well in that case can you also start lobbying for children in the UK to receive the chicken pox vaccine (which does kill children or can have serious long term effects) and for the Men B vaccine to be offered to all children - I think it was introduced as a routine vaccination in 2014 as my DS just missed out. Meningitis is a huge issue within children and a great swathe of children fell outwith the vaccination programme.

Sorry Men B vaccine was only introduced in Sept 2015 . Loads of children unprotected.

@ADreadedSunnyDay
So because children die of other respiratory diseases, we shouldn’t bother to prevent deaths from covid? Why not?

Some context re flu vs covid - Here’s the ONS statistics on influenza deaths in 2019. Under 19s = 30 deaths. That’s compared to 20 deaths in children from covid in just 6 weeks August to October 2021.

Ah OK so this thread is actually about lobbying for children to get the Covid vaccination.

Yes please

Well in that case can you also start lobbying for children in the UK to receive the chicken pox vaccine…and for the Men B vaccine to be offered to all children

Yep, have already been emailing my mp about the chicken pox vaccine for a few years (she was a health minister). It’s not had a great deal of impact. Do you know any other avenues where parents can push for this? Men B I think is vaccinated against in the US, and from memory I think in the UK 16 year olds have a meningitis booster but men b isn’t included. Would be good to know where to lobby if you have any hints?

@containsnuts

I read 20% of people in intensive care are pregnant women. I wonder what happens to the babies and if/how it's recorded in terms of death or severe outcomes?

The babies usually go home with family. The babies who died of covid usually had another condition which was more serious. For example a lot of babies that died were born very prematurely (at 24-30 weeks) and already had a low chance of survival)

@Lalalablahblahblah

Also.its not only about vaccines. If we improved ventilation in schools there would be less transmission of covid AND other respiratory viruses. Surely that's a win win?

You’d think it would be! It would be a lifesaver for working parents who lose working time/promotion opportunities (and sometimes even their job) due to having to take time off for child illness - a problem that disproportionately affects women.

@Theemperorhasnoclothes
"And it affects children's mental health when their classmates are dropping like flies and many of them are very ill and only in school intermittently after covid. It's scary and they feel abandoned by the adults."
This is not my childrens' or their friends' experience of recent high covid rates in school.
It has been a minor inconvenience.
None of their many friends who tested positive are still ill (one is yet to regain his smell).
DS2s year group were sent home, and they both had to pcr as close contacts (though no info from Test and Trace).
However I agree that ventilation in classrooms is important to minimise disruption.

A little bit out of date, but lets look at the data:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57766717

Data from the first 12 months of the pandemic in England shows 25 under-18s died from Covid

Around 15 had life-limiting or underlying conditions, including 13 living with complex neuro-disabilities

A further 36 children had a positive Covid test at the time of their death but died from other causes, the analysis suggests - These are included in ONS data as covid will have been mentioned on death certificate, but will have died "with" rather than "of".

Cold hearted statistics, but reflects that the risk is still really, really low.

@Brindle88

Letting it rip in schools is also going to impact these children’s families. The grandparents who are doing the childcare and school runs, and clinically vulnerable and pregnant parents.

It’s harming kids if they bring COVID home then witness parents and grandparents get seriously ill or die.

We have covid rates that are so much higher than many parts of the world due to our failure to put in basic mitigations in schools. It’s criminal.

👏👏👏

@BigWoollyJumpers

A little bit out of date, but lets look at the data: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57766717

Data from the first 12 months of the pandemic in England shows 25 under-18s died from Covid

Around 15 had life-limiting or underlying conditions, including 13 living with complex neuro-disabilities

A further 36 children had a positive Covid test at the time of their death but died from other causes, the analysis suggests - These are included in ONS data as covid will have been mentioned on death certificate, but will have died "with" rather than "of".

Cold hearted statistics, but reflects that the risk is still really, really low.

But we had protective measures in schools in the first 12 months. Now we have none, expecting the rate to be even remotely comparable is obviously laughable. You're comparing apples and oranges.

There is more recent data on hospitalisations which showed around 60% of children hospitalised had no underlying conditions. (and I don't see why we should throw diabetic children, among other children who can have a normal life with an underlying condition, under the bus either).

Their have only been a handful of children with Covid on my PICU and most of them had other issues.

Bronchiolitis is a much bigger problem for Babies and young children than Covid will ever be.

Not child mortality, but just noticed another helpful stat on the JCVI report - PHE estimates that cases of PIMS are 5 in every 10,000 infections.

Having seen my dc go through it, you really want your child to avoid PIMS. Out of the long term problems he’s been left with, I’m not sure which were caused by PIMS and which by covid. Which is all irrelevant, as the covid infection triggered the PIMS.

Sorry if some people find that’s scaremongering. It’s sadly just “reality” for those of us going through it.

There is a "sort of vaccine" for RSV, and hence bronchiolitis, which can be given to the most at risk premature babies monthly until the age of two (maybe only during the winter months?) it's not a full vaccine because it doesn't stimulate your body to produce its own antibodies which is why you need to keep topping it up.
www.ouh.nhs.uk/patient-guide/leaflets/files/45436Ppalivizumab.pdf

And both Pfizer and Moderna are testing RSV vaccinations at the moment.