Alarming 94K surge in COVID-19 cases among kids, hospitals overwhelmed
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Public health experts and state officials are raising alarms about a surge in COVID hospitalizations among children -- now at their steepest and seeing the most significant increase since the onset of the pandemic.
After declining in the early summer, child COVID-19 cases have steadily increased again in recent weeks -- just as many kids head back to the classroom.
In a newly released weekly report, which compiles state-by-state data on COVID-19 cases among children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association (CHA) found that nearly 94,000 new child COVID-19 cases were reported last week, a continued "substantial" increase.
'This is not your grandfather's COVID,' pediatrician warns
Some of the worst numbers are in Louisiana and Florida but could get worse elsewhere fast as public health officials express concerns with the highly contagious delta variant amid continued vaccine hesitancy.
"This is not your grandfather's COVID," Dr. Mark Kline, the physician in chief of Children's Hospital New Orleans told ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday. Louisiana is facing the nation's highest rate of new COVID-19 cases with the Children's Hospital in New Orleans describing what they're seeing as "an epidemic of very young children."
"We are hospitalizing record numbers of children," Kline continued. "Half of the children in our hospital today are under two years of age. Most of the others are between five and ten years of age -- too young to be vaccinated just yet."
In Florida, the state with the highest number of confirmed pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations in the country, 179 patients are receiving care, according to federal data. As of Monday morning, Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami had one child on a ventilator.
Dr. Marcos Mestre, the hospital's vice president and chief medical officer, told ABC News that in recent weeks, his teams have seen a "significant uptick" in pediatric COVID-19 cases. He said some children are alone in the hospital because their parents, also unvaccinated, are battling COVID-19 at another hospital.
"It's tough," he said, and places "undue social stress on the child, as you can imagine, not having the parents around."
Texas follows Florida closely behind with 161 confirmed pediatric patients hospitalized across the state, and in California, there are 98 confirmed pediatric patients receiving care.
It comes as the country's daily case average for Americans increased to nearly 100,000 cases a day for the past four days -- up by 31.7% in the last week and nearly nine times higher than the average was in mid-June. For children 17 and under, the rate of pediatric hospital admissions per capita is 3.75 times higher than it was just a month ago -- now equal to its highest point of the pandemic, in January 2021.
While severe illness due to COVID-19 remains "uncommon" among children, experts say the increased trend is concerning.
"While severe outcomes of COVID-19 infection in pediatric populations continue to be relatively low compared to adults, the current exponential growth in hospitalizations is a very worrisome trend," explained Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor. "As the remaining population ineligible for the vaccine, children will, unfortunately, be the main vectors of virus spread creating risk to both themselves and the rest of the population."
The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved vaccines for children under 12, leaving a large youth population susceptible to COVID-19. But following data released by the AAP last week showing the massive increase in COVID-19 cases among kids, the organization wrote a letter to the head of the FDA urging authorization of vaccines for 5-11-year-olds as fast as possible.
"We understand that the FDA has recently worked with Pfizer and Moderna to double the number of children ages 5-11 years included in clinical trials of their COVID-19 vaccines. While we appreciate this prudent step to gather more safety data, we urge FDA to carefully consider the impact of this decision on the timeline for authorizing a vaccine for this age group," wrote Dr. Lee Savio Beers, president of the AAP.
"Simply stated, the delta variant has created a new and pressing risk to children and adolescents across this country, as it has also done for unvaccinated adults," she said.
Beers told ABC News Live's "The Breakdown" Monday that hospital workers are inundated with the massive increase in COVID-19 cases among kids particularly in areas where vaccinations are low.
"They're seeing just a lot of kids who are very ill with COVID. They're seeing children in their ICUs. They're seeing children who are in pretty significant distress," she said, reiterating the organization's position that the FDA could approve vaccines for 5 to 11 years olds based on previous trials.
"We know that [COVID] can be severe in children, and so we should do those things that we need to do to help prevent the spread and help keep our kids and our whole community safe," she added.
Dr. Ashish Jha, who supports expanding vaccinations for those 5 to 11, reiterated on ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday the position widely shared by public health experts that the first step to getting kids back to school safely is with vaccinations for everyone who is eligible.
"Kids who can't get vaccinated, you protect them by making sure everyone around them is vaccinated," he said.
A recent CDC national immunization survey from late July found that among parents of children 13 to 17, 49.8% had children vaccinated or definitely plan to vaccinate, 25.4% were "probably will get their children vaccinated or are unsure", and 24.8% are reluctant, "probably or definitely will not get children vaccinated."
Despite the delta surge, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found among unvaccinated adults, nearly half, 46%, say they definitely won't get a shot, 15% call it very unlikely and 10% somewhat unlikely. In another question, one in five of the unvaccinated say news about variants has made them more apt to get a jab.
As pediatric hospitalizations rise, especially where vaccination rates are low, Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine called what's unfolding in the South a "humanitarian catastrophe."
"As schools act as an accelerant you should assume we're going to see pediatric intensive care units all across the South completely overwhelmed and even a possibility of small tent cities of sick adolescents and kids," he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe," adding the slope is "going up and up."
Less than 30% of Americans ages 12 to 15, and only 41% of Americans 16 to 17 are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
"And now schools are going to be an extraordinary accelerant," he added. "If your adolescent kid is unvaccinated, you should assume there's a high likelihood that that child is going to get COVID."
The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, hopes that full approval to the coronavirus vaccine will be granted by the end of August, he said Sunday, and predicted the move will encourage and new wave of vaccinations.
"I hope -- I don't predict -- I hope that it will be within the next few weeks. I hope it's within the month of August," Fauci said of full FDA approval on NBC's "Meet the Press." "If that's the case, you're going to see the empowerment of local enterprises, giving mandates that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety and I strongly support that. The time has come."
But there's opposition -- and it could be heard by the Supreme Court.
A group of eight unvaccinated University of Indiana students made an 11th-hour appeal to the Supreme Court last week to block the school's vaccination mandate for anyone on campus this fall. They put forth various arguments for why the mandate allegedly violates their constitutional rights and heightened legal scrutiny, including that it's contrary to FDA's emergency use authorization terms for the vaccines -- which public health experts are hoping changes soon. The students asked for a decision by Friday.
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Are we going to stop fooling around with this thing or are we going to let Trumpster extremists dictate our health policies ?
Children depend on all of us to keep them safe.
If kids start dying it will be too late for forgiveness.
When is your president going to quit fooling around and take the pandemic seriously?
When are you going to quit casting all the blame on the Republicans?
Biden is not opposing wearing masks or vaccinations. What are you talking about? Are Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott Democrats or Republicans ? Both of them are Trumpsters too.
Biden's been taking it seriously long before he became President. We have proof the former Republican President publicly lied to Americans about Covid, told people it wasn't that serious, was no worse than the flu and would just disappear like a 'miracle' while behind the scenes was telling a journalist the exact opposite. Thankfully we don't have a lying sack of shit President like that any longer.
Perhaps when the vast majority of them start supporting common sense safety protocols and supporting vaccinations.
" Republican skepticism of Covid vaccines and their rollout has grown louder: One recent poll found that 47 percent said they weren’t likely to get vaccinated ." " compared with just 6 percent of Democrats ."
How can you be blatantly dishonest while being up there on that self righteous high horse?
“Biden is not opposing wearing masks or vaccinations”
But he is allowing thousands, THOUSANDS, could be more, of covid positive illegals into this country. That is as bad as it gets.
'When are you going to quit casting all the blame on the Republicans?'
I for one don't.
As you know, I routinely denounce all sections of the ruling class for their crimes against humanity.
If you're sincere, feel free to join me in free and open condemnation of the homicidal policies of social murder!
If not, I see no reason to believe that you're serious.
Bidet? Elementary school déjà vu.
It’s not even remotely clever.
Yeah he should have said trumpdurdians, or trumpturd, or turd Reich somehow in the comment. Would have come across so much better.......................and much more mature.
Maybe he just can't spell.
Repeatedly.
Own your words rather than whine: ‘but they do it too’.
Well....see what Jim said below in this comment:
I'm guilty of schoolyard name calling
Put forth intelligent commentary rather than childish name mangling and you will see different responses from me.
I just put him on ignore because his childishness gets on my nerves.
When are you going to quit casting all the blame on the Republicans?
Perhaps when more of them finally get hit with reality:
A Conservative Radio Host Who Downplayed Vaccines On His Show Is On An Oxygen Machine After A Severe COVID-19 Infection
Any higher and he will need a parachute.
When republicans are no longer actively guilty of sedition and treason.
Some good news.
A federal judge tossed DeSantis's rule that businesses can't mandate mask wearing,
allowing Norwegian Cruises to require masks to go on their cruises.
The same logic should be applied to school districts.
Everyone in the US Armed Forces has until 09/15 to get vaccinated.
Israel is working with Pfizer and Moderna to start vaccinating the most at risk kids down to the age of 5
with a 1/3 dose of the vaccines.
The wave is building...
The numbers in Florida are off the chart but DeSantis is trying to enforce his no-mask mandate in schools. There are 7 or 8 schools districts that are ignoring his mandate one way or the other. There are two law suits over his mandate.
SP mentioned above the ruling against DeSantis on the business side. Most cruise lines are making it so difficult for non vaccinated people to book, it becomes expensive for them and very restrictive.
Some of the big boys, Disney World, Walmart, Target, Publix Home Depot have mandated masks and in some cases vaccines for all of their employees.
A poll was take a few days ago and 61% of parents want a mask mandate against 31% that do not.
Today Florida reported 28,317 new Covid cases and 120 deaths.
Morning...if those numbers don't convince people to get vaccinated nothing will..
Great for little kids stuck in hospital and their parents are in another with the virus...
NSW is a mess where is your son located?? Not released their numbers yet for today..y'day was 283..
They have just lifted lock down for regional Victoria.. where I live not had a case for 12 months now. Melbourne has 20 cases today so doubt lock down will be lifted Thursday for them...
And so it goes on...
It's my daughter, grandson, and three granddaughters, plus twelve great-grandkids and three great great grandkids and they all live in Orange, NSW a ways from Sydney. The last of the tribe moved from WA a few months back and they are all now in Orange. My daughter still maintains a home in Perth and spends about half the year in Orange. They are all doing fine.
My grandson is the one in the Australian Military.
My son lives in California.
It's such a mess in Florida and much of the US that it's difficult to explain or wrap your head around. The governor of Florida is a moron at best.
Opps sorry..got mixed up...brain fade...356 in NSW today..getting out of hand now..but most are wandering around in the community while infected..Still can't get through to some people...
No worries, I have a hard time keeping track of the tribe..LOL
356 isn't even a blip here.
A/noon..They are bringing in Moderna here from the USA...
Is that the one you had and others on NT??
Any drastic side effects??
We have a choice of 3 vaccines now...
My wife and I both had Moderna. She had no side effects and all I had was a very low-grade fever overnight and a bit of a sore arm for two days.
Had Covid last November...and both Moderna shots late January/early February..
Some soreness at injection site and in my joints and mild fever for about 24-36 hours
I took the Moderna. Massive body aches were my only side effect and they went away a day later.
Morning...thank you...I had my first injection of Astra Zeneca three weeks ago and the second injection is due in a few weeks time...all went well....
My money is on "nothing will".
Seriously...the number of people who have just lost their Goddamned minds is incredible.
As shona reported for Australia, we have people walking around knowing they were positive, still going to work without wearing masks. One person in my county died after insisting on working unmasked while positive and symptomatic, and the week before he died, he tried to convince his son, who worked for him, to keep coming to work after he had tested positive and was symptomatic. "God will protect us." I was at a fundraiser a few weeks after the dad died. His widow was not wearing a mask. The fundraiser was for their very sick granddaughter, who was at the fundraiser (wearing a mask, fortunately).
People don't learn a damn thing.
It is amazing is it not? Some people get a notion in their head and then absolutely shut out all facts to the contrary. Sometimes, as per your comment, to the point of death. It is incredible.
My sons and I had Moderna and my wife had Pfizer. In all cases we had a minor muscle ache at the point of injection the next day. Nothing even to speak of.
I hope you made sure that girl gets the money in a trust. Not one penny should be able to be gotten by her idiot relatives.
I had both shots of the Pfizer a few months ago. After the first shot I had almost no side effects. In fact, not even a little soreness at injection site immediately afterwards.
But that night in bed I rolled over on the side of injection site and had a very mild soreness-- rolled back over again and soreness was totally gone, The next day it was as if nothing happened-- no reaction at all!
Some people say the reaction after the second dose might be worse-- but I had no reaction atl--zero!.
(Of course I am a bit of a "health nut"-- built up a strong immune system. Bodyweight same as high school, eat healthy, eat food that naturally build up immune systenm, drink only small amounts of Alcohol rarely.)
The second Moderna landed me in bed for a day, but I needed a complete day off. I self medicated and caught up on my sleep. The next day I was 99% back.
If any chose to get fired rather than adhere to the mandate, they should not be able to collect any benefits.
It wasn't really an option. I wasn't running the fundraiser - I just supported it by buying from them. I was just upset that they weren't being more careful around her.
Bummer.
Despite feeling like I had been run over by a truck, a full day of rest with snacks and water on my nightstand did me a world of good.
How many more American children must be sacrificed upon the gop's lowly alter to Trump and his Ignorance?
That's what I keep asking? How many deaths are acceptable?
Yet:
Now, attempt to reason through what that means.
Is Biden strongly encouraging people to get vaccinated?
While I agree the border is a problem and I agree Biden has totally abdicated his responsibilities in that area, the math on this is quite clear that immigrants are not why we have a surge in Covid cases and deaths.
Do you have anything else other than mindlessly repeating the same point regardless of what is being discussed?
Yeah, we all know that our border is not secure and that some illegals have entered our nation infected with COVID. You are not offering anything new. And, yes, Biden should ensure a perfect border among 100 other things. Reality, however, is that a PotUS can do only so much and will constantly have to make political concessions to make net progress. Note also: I disagree with Biden's border priorities. But I do not let my disagreement cloud my acknowledgement of facts.
The infected illegals are not the cause of our pandemic surge. I gave you facts that should have given you a clue, but you completely ignored them and went back to the mindless parroting of your favorite R talking point.
Those like you who focus on one issue and presume perfection demonstrate an utterly naive understanding of political reality. Part of the reason for that is ignoring facts that run counter to what you wish such as those I presented @3.1.2.
Show your facts. Provide evidence that the reason for the surge is Biden purposely seeding infected illegals in the current hot spots. Back up your claim because right now all you have offered is illogical partisan bullshit.
Well, for some strange reason some of the MAGA groupies seem to believe states like Idaho and Wyoming are on the Mexican border! And the western state of Florida as well!
(Perhaps its not strange they believe that-- after all they are merely parroting what the extreme right-wing media tells them to believe)
How can you say that?
Don't you realize that telling the truth about the cause is betraying Trump???
Yeah one can spoon feed facts to some and it just never sinks in. Some have a belief (based, no doubt, on a trusted source telling them this is so) and they will just go with it no matter what facts are presented.
Well, JBB, some claim that Biden is intentionally transporting infected illegals to those hot spots. So there you go, Biden is rounding up infected illegals and drop shipping them to seed the national hot spots.
Is this a contest by some to make the most stupid claim?
He has no proof....as usual.
Rut ro...they may make him turn in his OFICAL Trump card. Jack, the first beer is on me.
In case we're not being sarcastic....sometimes it's hard to tell...I have stated publicly and repeatedly that I have never voted for Donald Trump, and the only thing that would cause me to do so is Bernie being his opponent.
That said, the fact that many Trump supporters are morons does not suggest in any way that many liberals are not also morons.
To answer TiG's question in 3.1.10, our society seems locked in a fight to the death between competing groups of morons determined to inflict their own particular strain of stupidity on the rest of us.
I think you mean @3.1.12. If so, I think you are spot on. You use the term 'morons' whereas I use the term 'partisans'. And really, my 'partisan' reference is to the fringe partisans who truly are simply carrying party water by mindlessly repeating and arguing talking points without (in most cases) having a clue on how to defend the fucking ridiculous claims they make.
Example utterly stupid claims:
At this point, they're synonymous terms.
The beer offer stands
.
It better describes the die-hard Trump sycophants.
A much better statement than claiming he is purposely trying to infect US citizens with infected illegals.
You're consistently more polite than I am.
So "morons".
I'm not interested in being polite to these people, on either the left or right lunatic fringe.
I'm in.
When I use the word ' partisan ', I assure you that I am not trying to be polite.
235,000 new cases of the virus today. What's WITH you guys?
Theey get all their news only from extreme right-wing site...many far to the right of even Faux News!
Is there a mask mandate in China for school kids? I am betting there is and that is a very good thing and parents honor it.
I don't know. Until very recently when two new cases occurred, there has not been a case of virus for well over a year in the 32 million population City-State in which I live save for a couple of imported cases almost a year ago. Many people have given up wearing masks although many still do. My wife and I still do when we go out. If I were to guess, in the circumstances, kids were not wearing masks in school, but due to some new clustters happening in China, it's possible that they might start doing so if not already. You are right that parents would honour it - which is one of the main reasons why China has been so successful in containing the virus.
That is because the Chinese value honor and the lives of their loved ones.
That is because the Chinese value honor and the lives of their loved ones.
As long as they don't want to think for themselves. Then they get machined gunned and have their remains powerwashed into storm sewers.
And of course, China spreads anti-vaxx information in America.
KInd of a strange statement, Sean. I've come to know at least a thousand Chinese people, having lived here for 15 years - some I know or knew extremely well, some less, but all the same I happen to know FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE for a fact that Chinese people are capable of and DO think for themselves. Millions of Chinese people complained about the whistleblower doctor being silenced, and millions of Chinese people complained about Chloe Zhao (the Director of Nomadland) being censored in China, and they have not been machine-gunned so no remains to wash into storm sewers. I would think that any person who has never been to China but only devours anti-Chinese propaganda and then makes groundless accusations would be totally ignorant of such things, but that would not stop them from having a big fucking ignorant mouth.
Would you please provide me with a REPUTABLE source that indicates that China has been spreading antivax information in America. From what I've been reading on American news sites is that it is Americans, mostly conservatives, that have been doing that.
LOL. Y'all might notice no reply to my request. PROOF that such accusations are just plain old-fashioned BULLSHIT HATEMONGERING.
I would think that any person who has never been to China but only devours anti-Chinese propaganda and then makes groundless accusations would be totally ignorant of such things, but that would not stop them from having a big fucking ignorant mouth.
Unfortunately many Americans are poorly informed about other countries. (Actually from what he said I believe he's confusing China with North Korea!
Everyone should take note that NO source was provided for my request that the Chinese are spreading anti-vax propaganda in the USA. So yet again a comment that is nothing more than an outright lie. Question: If a comment is a lie, what does that make the commenter?
My hairdresser's son has to quarantine for 10 days. He was exposed at school.
And a patient called this morning to reschedule her appointment later this week. Her younger daughter has tested positive. Her older daughter has leukemia, so she's pretty scared for her sake. Mom is vaccinated, but neither daughter is old enough to get the vaccine yet.
Our schools have been open since August 5th, and that's 2 families I know of so far who have kids who are either positive or have been exposed.
Since the wife gave her notice to retire from the law firm on 12/31
and one of the vaccinated coworkers got a case of breakthrough COVID a couple of weeks ago
shutting down the whole high rise for cleaning again....well, she came back and quit because the firm forced her to take leave - she was out of PTO time
so at the end of quarantine she announced that she would work her final two weeks at home.
Now they are making everyone work remotely which is fine for the wife and I. No commute.
Which is going to make training replacements very interesting...
Our grade school opened on the 5th with a mask mandate , then with all the Abbott drama , masks optional
now they are going back to masks in spite of the ban on mandates but they may go back to distance learning because attendance is only 40%
cmtsu
We started without the mask mandate, but on Friday of that week, our governor announced that any county that didn't have a mask mandate was in violation of state mandates, so the mandate was reinstated for local schools that first weekend. There are student protests just about every day, I believe.
Dallas ISD stuck to their mask mandate while various judges try to overule one another
Mr. Hinosa the Superintendent said that of 97,000 students only 3 caused an issue on day one and were sent home, 1 middle schooler and 2 high school students.
A judge ruled against Abbot in San Antonio, they are wearing masks
I think there were around 90 or so protesters the first day. There have been a few each day since then.
I wonder if Gov Abbot will soon begin to realize how serious the Delta Variation is?
Abbott Tests Positive For COVID-19