Is the delta variant more dangerous for children? A growing number of kids are very sick
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The number of very sick children admitted to Children's Hospital New Orleans with Covid-19 has exploded over the past two weeks — from zero to 20.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Dr. Mark Kline, the hospital's physician-in-chief. "We are seeing children fall ill that we just simply didn't see in the first year of the pandemic, before the delta variant came along."
Doctors at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children Infectious Diseases in Florida have seen similar surges recently. "The last two weeks, cases have continued to increase," said Dr. Federico Laham, medical director for the hospital. "I don't think we have reached our peak."
Despite the dramatic increase in cases, Laham and other pediatric infectious disease experts nationwide tell NBC News that there is no hard evidence yet that the delta variant has transformed the virus into something more dangerous in kids.
"It's too early to tell," said Dr. Bernhard Wiedermann, an infectious diseases specialist at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. "It's going to take time and a collection of data from multiple sites to know" whether the delta variant is, in fact, more virulent in kids than previous versions of the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to determine whether the delta variant can, in fact, cause more severe disease in children, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC's director, said during a briefing Thursday.
She added that such research is complicated by the combination of increased cases and relaxed restrictions on masking and physical distancing. "The mitigation strategies that were used last summer, even in the winter, have not been employed in many of these areas that we are having surges right now," Walenksy said.
Delta is a doctor's 'worst nightmare'
What is obvious now, experts say, is that surges in pediatric cases are due to the variant's hypertranmissibility, circulating in a population left unvaccinated and therefore vulnerable to the virus.
"If more children get sicker, that's just because more kids are getting sick," said Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "It's clearly increased contagiousness, not increased virulence."
Children have been susceptible to Covid-19 all along. More than 4.1 million children have been diagnosed with Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, accounting for 14.3 percent of all cases, according to the latest data from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
From July 15 to July 29, that percentage rose to 19 percent of weekly reported cases.
"Over the course of the first year of this pandemic, the myth existed that children never got very ill from Covid," Kline said. That was mainly because the number of pediatric cases was relatively low.
Because the delta variant is so contagious, he said, the increase in cases clearly shows the virus's potential, even in young, otherwise healthy children.
"This delta variant is an infectious disease specialist's worst nightmare," Kline said.
The uptick in pediatric Covid cases comes at a time when young people are preparing to go back to school in person — and in many areas, without the added protection of masks. What's more, children's hospitals have also been inundated with kids sick with other respiratory viruses, such as severe colds, croup and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
"Even though Covid has flu-like symptoms, Covid is not the flu.
Dr. Evan Anderson, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, warned that the convergence of viruses may overwhelm already stretched pediatric hospital wards.
"Many children's hospitals get quite full during the usual winter months with influenza, RSV and other viral respiratory pathogens," Anderson said. With an added surge of Covid-19, "there would be major concerns about hospital capacity."
Kline agreed. "Children don't have very many options when it comes to finding care if they have severe disease or complex medical conditions," he said. "Covid is filling beds that otherwise might be occupied by children with other medical problems."
The impact of rising Covid-19 cases, coupled with the other viruses, worries pediatricians like Dr. Natasha Burgert, a national spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and practicing physician in Overland Park, Kansas.
"We're starting to see kids that have both Covid and RSV that are not doing well," Burgert said. "I have no idea what's going to happen if they have Covid and influenza."
While the flu can cause severe illness in kids, and even lead to death, Burgert said that the potential effects of Covid-19 are "beyond what flu would ever do."
"Even though Covid has flu-like symptoms, Covid is not the flu," she said.
Burgert and colleagues all point to the potential for children with Covid-19 to develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.
That's when children develop dangerous inflammation around the heart and other organs, most often weeks after their initial infection. Many times, patients are unaware they were ever infected because their symptoms were either nonexistent or extremely mild.
When a child is diagnosed with influenza, they clearly have symptoms, and physicians know to be on the lookout for complications. Covid's potential to result in MIS-C is different, because it blindsides doctors and their young patients.
"This could be a kid that looks totally fine, and then three weeks later is in the ICU with organ failure," said Dr. Nicole Baldwin, a pediatrician in Cincinnati.
Laham, in Orlando, is bracing for such cases. "Once you have a wave of Covid activity in your community, we know that three to four weeks later, we start seeing children coming into the hospital presenting with MIS-C."
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Shame. Shame. Shame. Here we see the stark hypocrisy of the "freedom fanatics" who pretend to care about LIFE but won't cut children already here slack! The gig is up! Some conservatives are full of. . . 'it.' Arguing over bull patty for over a year. . . and now this opportunistic virus is taking on the weakest among us, while these fools do political combat!
frckn A wholes
What's that got to do with kids getting Covid. The vaccines are not approved for use on kids yet. Anti-vaxxers are more likely to be left wingers, anyway.
If you're going to play the blame game, blame Biden...he's been in charge of the response for several months now..
No, they're not. I believe this graph has been shared here multiple times, so you really should have known this already, unless you're actively trying to ignore it.
He's just spewing his normal BS.
Agreed.
You are very right with that!
I'm sorry I was a dick to you earlier. I just can't help it sometimes.
Thanks, I agree with you on somethings.
This place an important place for lots of people
I don't get mad at you
That's delusional bull patty. Children get COVID from (dumb ass) adults who are carriers and who expose them to it!
Florida has a number of children's hospitals and we also have the highest number of children being hospitalized by COVID.
The answer to both questions is yes and yes.
I don't see how anyone can think that your governor is doing a good job.
Now as typical with the right wing, he is blaming Biden and the border...
Yeah, typical of him. I wonder how he explains the other 3 surges that we had, probably aliens.
His no-mask mandate for schools is already being challenged in court and in a recent poll, 62% of parents want a mask mandate for the schools.
His no mask mandates private business isn't doing well since Disney World, Publix, Target, Walmart, and others have mandated it for their employees.
Disney went further and said all employees much be vaccinated within 60 days or no job.
Gainesville and Jacksonville school districts have a school mask mandate, defying DeSantis.
Wasn't that a no vaccine requirement for passengers on cruse lines?
The University of Wisconsin is also defying the WI Republican led Legislature here on mask mandates. The U lawyered up and is ready to meet the challenge.
I've been hearing whisperings around the edges of things about insurance... That may ultimately drive the whole COVID conversation if insurance companies start charging companies, individuals and states more for non-mask/non-vaccinations policies.
You're correct it was a no vaccine requirement for passengers which the cruise lines are ignoring and requiring it or if not you have to have covid tests there and you pay for them or they are requiring a travel insurance policy that will pay for the cost that the line may encounter if a person comes down with covid, such as transportation off the ship etc.
That's right. The covid test and travel insurance was the end around the DeSantis order... I remember now.
The cruise lines also said that if you show up without proof of vaccine or without travel insuance in place you WILL NOT get a refund on your fare.
I'm sure we'll read about some bonehead that will try to sue on that point soon enough.
That'll hit the alleged conservatives where it hurts, their wallets.
I mean the hospitalizations for the non-vaccinated are in the 10s of thousands to 100s of thousands dollars
It will change the dynamic for sure. Insurance carriers won't eat too much money before they start mandating change via costs as they always do.
Insurance companies and businesses are the way to get more people vaccinated.
No coverage, no job has a way of changing minds.
LMAO, there isn't any Mexico/Florida border.
And the denial of Covid carriers crossing the border in large numbers continues. Hell, the Biden administration sends them all over the US via bus or plane....at the taxpayers expense.
And that covers our citizen CARRIERS how? Just throwing up conservative whataboutisms and 'sit and spin.'
and that is a good point
The score card for today. Florida 22,000 plus new covid cases 199 deaths, 135 kids in the hospital and over 12,000 total in the hospital and close to 3,000 in ICU.
Our hospitals are full.