Strep A and Covid

[wondersun]

Children have been repeatedly infected and exposed to covid for what seems like forever now

Two years ago they had some months remote learning, more than half of which were spring/summer months

After repeat covid infections, with a virus which is known to damage immune systems, we see a FIVE FOLD increase in Strep A bacterial infections and an alarming increase in deaths (6 child deaths in this winter so far, compared with an average of 1/2 in an average winter)

Media full of headlines linking this rise to lockdowns 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

No mention of the immune damaging virus that the government has allowed to let rip in unmitigated schools. The virus which is STILL ripping through schools

No mention of the fact that the biggest increase in strep A is in our largely unvaccinated under 10 population

No attempt made to explain away the obvious links to covid; it’s surreal, covid is just not mentioned

Its still a new virus, even without the increasing body of evidence re damage to people’s immune systems, you’d think the ongoing airborne pandemic would rate a mention…

And there is so much we could be doing to protect children and keep their world’s open but the government is doing nothing, if anything they seem to actually be pro-infection

Its just 🤯🤯🤯 and 😡😡😡

But they were exposed to viruses because <stop the press> most children have had covid.

schools were not closed for that long and they were back in September 2021. Plus you’re seeing older kids get this - who would have had years of exposure behind them and their immune system wouldn’t have “forgotten” how to deal with Strep A (the idea of an immune system forgetting is just faux science).

I think it would be perfectly possible to our hepa filters in all classrooms but there is a lack of will and ambition at the heart of this government and, as a result, people think it’s not possible.

The technology is neither new, innovative or difficult. It’s just a lack of drive and ambition to do it.

Surely they won’t put it in the press about how Covid attacks the immune system OP, it’s more palatable to just blame it on ‘the lockdowns’.

So many young children who have been infected several times will now be developing with vastly different immune responses to how we grew up- ours was able to adapt and strengthen after sickness where as with Covid it’s a different story.

The fact that strep a is higher in the under 10s who tend to be unvaccinated is a red herring. Strep A infections have always been highest in children under ten.

This is a nice graph of reported infections. Whilst infections are higher for this time of year we haven’t reached the number of cases seen in 2017/2018 yet.
remember that the more infections there are the more it spreads.
Its also worth considering that it is much harder to see a GP now than pre covid. Lack of access to antibiotics increases the transmission of strep A. There is another post on aibu about a woman who’s son had all the symptoms of scarlet fever, had been in contact with two cases at nursery but the GP refused to see him or give antibiotics. Multiply that situation across the country where GPS aren’t seeing the rash in person and suddenly you have an outbreak as it’s being allowed to spread.

This interview with an ER doctor absolutely hits the nail on the head about the pediatric health crisis. He's speaking about the Canadian context where PICUs are also overwhelmed and they are running out of children's Tylenol and antibiotics and everything he says rings true for the UK too. Worth 5 minutes of your time. twitter.com/NatashaFatah/status/1599560610748182528?t=_vVWE8nKmnG5JyHfFMIN6w&s=19

So luxury is your view that repeated covid infections are seriously damaging our immune systems after each infection? I have seen some studies but am not sure how many were done in children. I’m also not sure if there was a comparison between infection after vaccination and infection after no vaccines.

we need to much more data

it seems clear to me the Damn thing was made and accidentally leaked. I can’t help but wonder if the Chinese response is because they know something we don’t. It troubles me but I don’t see the alternative

why anyone was EVER allowed to undertake gain of function research is beyond me

This piece by a Dr provides an explainer about scarlet fever this year and why it's sadly so deadly. It sets out very clearly the link between COVID and how it affects your immunity, lungs and tonsils, and the rising bacterial and fungal infections we are seeing and the overwhelming of health services.

Really worth a read. pingthread.com/thread/1599756689489944576

There’s an absolutely brilliant article in the guardian with the headline ‘Brains of post lockdown teens show faster aging’. At no point in the article does it mention that the study also looked at the differences between those that have had covid and those that hadn’t and found that the aging was more pronounced if teens had had covid (not that this is a surprise).

And then right at the bottom there’s a note saying that the headline had been changed from ‘post pandemic teens’ on Dec 3rd. It’s one of the most egregiously misreported science articles I’ve seen in a long time. And I’m dying to know who requested that the headline was changed to mislead the public.

Sweden are one of the few countries to have excess deaths in school age children during the pandemic aren’t they? Death rates in children across the rest of Europe fell because of lockdowns but Swedens went up because of covid.

A lot of the stuff we know about immune system know was stuff we were looking at in 2020. Same for cardiac and other issues. The difference is that China and Asian countries were listening to the evidence coming out and the questions being asked and have well prepared pandemic plans whereas we’ve been ignoring it because we don’t want to hear it. we only focused on deaths being the issue and not morbidity. As long as it was only the elderly dying it wasn’t an issue.

Covid is a tricky little fucker. It has a surprise around every corner. It really is the sort of thing you want to avoid getting to many times.

Good lord the amount of scientists and immunologists on this thread! What a load of shit people talk ‘the virus does this, that or the other’ It seems to me even our most eminent scientists such as Whitty got their predictions massively wrong so it’s unlikely some random scientific study you have read on google is going to make you an expert virologist.
Man is a social animal, we have to mix and bacteria and viruses are part of life. You can’t beat nature and you can’t hide indefinitely. Strep is an old as the hills, this is not new. I should know I nearly died from it 15 years ago, Concentrate on being aware of the symptoms because that is all you can realistically do.

Exactly this. I just can’t believe the government isn’t finding a way to change tact though. Damage is done, but to keep on infecting??? I don’t understand the end game?

They are even close to running out of antibiotics and it’s quite clear nobody is hiding, so why the trolling?

There was this resistance to clean water - Google Jon Snow. We need cleaner air and support for people when they are sick and need to stay home.

And before the “how do we pay for that?” people jump on. I don’t know. But I am pretty sure what we are doing is going to cost so much more.

Disappointed in the guardian 😔

Surprised no one has mentioned the Elephant in the room. Had the Strep A kids had the COVID vaccine?

Given the U.K. vaccination rate in 5-11s is lowers than virtually anywhere else and some of them are 2 young to have had the vaccine it seems unlikely.

And it’s not really an elephant in the room. More an antivax conspiracy.

My opinion is that continuous Covid reinfection can not be good for any age, if it were a simple benign flu virus then China would have fully opened up by this point but that’s my own speculation and view.

The developing immune systems of young children require continuous exposure to new viruses and germs in order to develop strong responses, it’s a scientific fact. Is Covid reinfection going to mess with this immune system development? Well I’m not sure they know enough about immune reactions to Covid to be certain of anything at this stage, but if they do it’s a very slow drip.

@Luxurysleuth007 "The developing immune systems of young children require continuous exposure to new viruses and germs in order to develop strong responses, it’s a scientific fact." Please show me peer-reviewed science that confirms this. Just because it's what we've allowed to happen since kids have been in nurseries and primary schools, doesn't mean it's necessary. There is ZERO benefit to catching any respiratory infections (or scarlett fever, which can damage your heart). ZERO.

If anything good can come out of covid, is to shift away from this expectation that kids should catch everything once they start nursery, by installing HEPA and ventilation. There is absolutely no reason that constant sickness has to continue. And Covid isn't making this constant sickness better because it's harming our T cells.

I know it was shortly after the war and fresh fruit and vegetables were in short supply but my mother used to give us “Stuff” in winter. Maybe the mums out there should consider giving their children what we now call multivitamins to help them cope with what appears to be an avalanche of bacteria and viruses?

Interesting. Me and DS were very active in lock down as I work in a hospital and DS went to a few different childcare provisions. He was never once poorly and I was poorly once right at the start of lockdown.

He became unwell last week and the GP said he has now got Scarlett fever. Funny how these things work!

This - strep A/scarlet fever cycles over time, and there have been increasing cases for a few years now (my DD had it about 4 years ago and cases were rising significantly then). Look up newspaper articles on “cases of scarlet fever rising”.

Remember that strep A is a bacterium. Scarlet fever is caused by a specific strain, when it has been infected with a bacteriophage that produces the scarlet fever toxin. There is evidence that the severity of that strain varies over long periods - hence why scarlet fever was much more deadly a century ago (this is not solely due to the advent of antibiotics).

Strep A cycles may have nothing whatsoever to do with Covid; they occur anyway, and in any case, there’s not remotely enough evidence to say whether or not right now.

I know it was shortly after the war and fresh fruit and vegetables were in short supply but my mother used to give us “Stuff” in winter. Maybe the mums and dads out there should consider giving their children what we now call multivitamins to help them cope with what appears to be an avalanche of bacteria and viruses?

mobile.twitter.com/NatashaFatah/status/1599560610748182528

well this is sobering. Alberta having to close children’s hospices and send children home so they can divert their staff to children’s hospitals. And Canada had a huge RSV wave last winter. It didn’t seem to cause this problem.

This!

It really does feel like we are back in the Middle Ages.

Which is why we should have always have employed the precautionary principle, especially with our kids.

Instead the government opted to promote and encourage infection.