This article is from before Delta and is way out of date. Even at face value at the time, the numbers show that covid is worse than the flu in terms of pediatric deaths. And that was pre-delta and now omicron. Things are likely better now that kids can be vaccinated but even at the time this was a nonsense argument from NPR.
Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
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Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#32The issue is omicron seems to be spreading, at last from what I've seen, faster than the flu (and unquestionably faster than delta). Most seasonal flu I've lived through, I've never seen everyone in the household come down with it immediately at the same time. In my home everyone came down with covid, kids and adults, almost exactly at the same time with the same symptoms. Omicron can be 0.1 times as lethal as delta,…
The flu can spread very quickly as well. My child's class was hit by the flu 2 years ago, just before COVID lockdowns began. More than 3/4 of the kids in her entire grade got sick at the same time.
We do expect that omicron will likely hit in a similar fashion once it surfaces in her school, despite the indoor/outdoor mask requirements and relatively high levels of child vaccination.
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
This is false. The current vaccine still makes one about 60x less likely to die of covid than being unvaccinated. It's ineffective at preventing infection to omicron, but highly effective at preventing death.
I read that the risk of death is reduced about tenfold, and meanwhile you are still infectious. Not a risk I am willing to take.
Why are non-pharmaceutical interventions downplayed? Where are the promised paid sick days?
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#34This article is from before Delta and is way out of date. Even at face value at the time, the numbers show that covid is worse than the flu in terms of pediatric deaths. And that was pre-delta and now omicron. Things are likely better now that kids can be vaccinated but even at the time this was a nonsense argument from NPR.
South Africa health minister confirmed that Omicron is a mild variant and is far less dangerous than Delta. It has also been confirmed that children:
1. Have higher chances of getting myocarditis after getting vaccinated.
2. Develop long lasting immunity after being exposed to the virus [1]
That makes me believe that there is absolutely no reason to vaccinate kids.
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#35As my kid contracted COVID yesterday on his 1st birthday and has a fever of 100.9. Oof.
I’m so sorry
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#36But the risk for children getting sick at school and bringing it back to their parents very much does not play out like the flu. I also think it is irresponsible for this article to not mention what ages they’re actually talking about. At some point there is a crossover of the risk and it may be in the younger to mid teens.
The risk of anyone un-vaxxed going to the hospital after catching covid is 0.89% (source: https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/354938/adults-estimat... ) and it is even lower than that if you are vaxxed. It is incredibly unnecessary and risky to vax children, and probably most adults. The only people that this vax should be recommended to are people in high-risk categorizes.
How much is 0.89% of 7.7 billion?
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
The risk of anyone un-vaxxed going to the hospital after catching covid is 0.89% (source: https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/354938/adults-estimat... ) and it is even lower than that if you are vaxxed. It is incredibly unnecessary and risky to vax children, and probably most adults. The only people that this vax should be recommended to are people in high-risk categorizes.
To be clear the 0.89% figure was obtained by dividing hospitalizations by population, so it includes many unvaccinated people who have not caught COVID (yet). The chance that an unvaccinated person who is COVID-positive will require hospitalization is around 3%.
Are these numbers for the US?
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#38Does this directly contradict this claim? (Not to mention how old this article is... ) US children hospitalized with COVID in near-record numbers https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-pande... (that is an ugly ugly link, apologies even though there's not a lot I can do there)
That number I think matches what flu hospitalization is for children.
Otoh (not saying you don't know this) viruses don't just "kill" or "not kill".
They can have serious, life altering changes on people. So just measuring hospitalization or death isn't that useful.
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#39People really seem to struggle with multiple facts.
It is a fact otherwise healthy kids hardly ever have serious COVID infection consequences.
It is a fact they give infections to others who don't do as well.
It is a fact many kids aren't otherwise healthy and have a much higher rate of death and complications.
It is a fact that even a very small rate of deaths or complications is a lot of dead kids when you're a big country like the USA.
Yet people pick only one fact and act like it is the one true fact that trump's all overs.
Re: Children's Risk of Serious Illness from Covid-19 Is as Low as It Is for the Flu
#40Does this directly contradict this claim? (Not to mention how old this article is... ) US children hospitalized with COVID in near-record numbers https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-pande... (that is an ugly ugly link, apologies even though there's not a lot I can do there)
I don't think so. Rate of infection and risk of illness are two separate statistics that may not be correlated. It doesn't mention whether the child hospitalization rate is higher or lower for Covid vs the flu. The near-record numbers are only compared to previous Covid hospitalizations. All that means is we are close to having as many sick children with covid as we have had at any point since the pandemic started. It doesn't say anything about severity compared to flu.
Comparing hospitalization rates with the flu is difficult. If a child has Covid and has moderately severe symptoms, they are probably more likely to go to the hospital than a child with the same level of symptoms and the flu, just because Covid is less familiar. That is especially true if you are looking at flu hospitalizations from pre-pandemic periods. Comparing mortality would probably be more relevant. A child with the Flu in 2019 was probably not going to go to the hospital unless she was turning blue or had an extremely high fever. With Covid i would probably take my child to the hospital if she was having any difficulty breathing, at a threshold much lower than what I would have gotten concerned about for the flu.
That may or may not be a valid distinction for a parent to make. This research suggests that a parent of a child with flu or covid should probably have the same level of precaution.