Pediatric COVID hospitalizations reports thread

[Anonymous]

Pediatric hospitalizations in the Southeastern states of the US, on the left. CDC data here https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions



This was offered in a post retweeted by Scott Gottlieb
https://twitter.com/cmyeaton/status/1422624128918556684?s=20

[Anonymous]

Children are not vaccinated, ok, but their adults should be. Let's don't make this some random spread that could not have been avoided!
Their parents are negligent areseholes who are actively trying to get their kids sick or dead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Children are not vaccinated, ok, but their adults should be. Let's don't make this some random spread that could not have been avoided!
Their parents are negligent areseholes who are actively trying to get their kids sick or dead.

And are children locked up at home with their parents? What if the parents have to work outside of the house, as much of America is being forced to do right now? They are negligent for sending their kids to school after years of learning loss, and with no online option in many places? They are negligent for having childcare so they can do their jobs? Kids could be exposed and infected in lots of ways, whether parents are vaccinated or not. It's ridiculous to blame parents for that, when *our whole society f#cked this up and put parents in an impossible situation*.

[Anonymous]

OP, thank you for posting this information.
I agree with PPs that the aggregate data is not really reliable because of the reporting issues, but the anecdotal data from hospitalists and pediatric specialists, is really troubling. It echoes what I've been hearing from pediatric specialists for months -- that they have been alarmed at the number of kids getting sick, the severity, and the breadth of symptoms.

I agree we are not Louisiana -- thank God we have done much better with vaccination. But our vaccination rates are still pretty depressing.

[Anonymous]

What I can’t figure out from all the anecdotes is whether the rate of severe illness in kids is also increasing. I get it that more kids are getting very sick, but more kids are getting sick overall, right?

Is it still like a 3% or less chance (or whatever) of severe illness in kids, just that 3% of 100,000 sick kids is a bigger number than 3% of 1000 sick kids?

Or is the rate of severe illness increasing (e.g now 10% of sick kids are getting really sick)?

[Anonymous]

Very sad article! Makes me rethink full time in person school. We need to get creative to keep kids distanced. School districts should be upgrading filtration and providing medical grade masks too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/08/04/pediatrician-covid-children-delta/?itid=hp_opinions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I can’t figure out from all the anecdotes is whether the rate of severe illness in kids is also increasing. I get it that more kids are getting very sick, but more kids are getting sick overall, right?

Is it still like a 3% or less chance (or whatever) of severe illness in kids, just that 3% of 100,000 sick kids is a bigger number than 3% of 1000 sick kids?

Or is the rate of severe illness increasing (e.g now 10% of sick kids are getting really sick)?

There's no evidence right now of an increase in virulence of covid (delta) in children. I would post articles but they will be deleted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, thank you for posting this information.
I agree with PPs that the aggregate data is not really reliable because of the reporting issues, but the anecdotal data from hospitalists and pediatric specialists, is really troubling. It echoes what I've been hearing from pediatric specialists for months -- that they have been alarmed at the number of kids getting sick, the severity, and the breadth of symptoms.

I agree we are not Louisiana -- thank God we have done much better with vaccination. But our vaccination rates are still pretty depressing.

Vaccination rates for 12+ in MoCo are some of the highest in the country. That's not depressing at all, and it also goes a long way towards keeping kids healthy (as do the mask mandates MCPS will have in schools).

Lost in these anecdata are not only denominators, but pre-morbid conditions in these children that are clinically relevant. This severe illness is a tragedy--particularly because much of it is preventable--but it's also not useful to fear-monger.

[Anonymous]

Florida pediatric hospitalization figures are soaring
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/566536-florida-childrens-hospitals-see-pediatric-covid-19-cases-soar

"In our previous iteration of the pandemic, it was more they’re positive but they’re not sick or minimally sick,” he explained. “This is different. ... There’s a much higher percentage of pediatric patients becoming infected and symptomatic.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, thank you for posting this information.
I agree with PPs that the aggregate data is not really reliable because of the reporting issues, but the anecdotal data from hospitalists and pediatric specialists, is really troubling. It echoes what I've been hearing from pediatric specialists for months -- that they have been alarmed at the number of kids getting sick, the severity, and the breadth of symptoms.

I agree we are not Louisiana -- thank God we have done much better with vaccination. But our vaccination rates are still pretty depressing.

Vaccination rates for 12+ in MoCo are some of the highest in the country. That's not depressing at all, and it also goes a long way towards keeping kids healthy (as do the mask mandates MCPS will have in schools).

Lost in these anecdata are not only denominators, but pre-morbid conditions in these children that are clinically relevant. This severe illness is a tragedy--particularly because much of it is preventable--but it's also not useful to fear-monger.

" Vaccination rates in the District among students ages 12 to 17 are low, particularly among Black children, who account for about 65 percent of the city’s public school population. Fifty-one percent of White 12-to-15-year-olds have received at least one dose while just 14 percent of Black youths in the same age group have received one, according to city data."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-teen-vaccines-school/2021/08/04/cb2e03e8-f39d-11eb-a49b-d96f2dac0942_story.html

[Anonymous]

There are so many reports in the news about this topic that the thread hasn't seemed so necessary lately.
Here's an odd thing happening:

Why Did Mass. Stop Sharing Child COVID Hospitalization Data?
Up until June 30, Massachusetts publicly reported hospitalizations from COVID-19 by age group; as children prepare to return to school with COVID-19 cases climbing back up, those numbers are blacked out

Up until June 30, Massachusetts publicly reported hospitalizations from COVID-19 by age group; as children prepare to return to school with COVID-19 cases climbing back up, those numbers are blacked out

NBC10 Boston reached out to the Department of Public Health again Wednesday morning to find out why it is no longer sharing this information publicly, and received this reply Wednesday afternoon: “The Commonwealth maintains one of the most robust and comprehensive public data reports on COVID-19 in the nation and has continued to regularly review and adjust its reporting to improve metrics as impacts of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth has evolved.”

https://www.necn.com/news/coronavirus/mass-stopped-sharing-child-covid-hospitalization-data-we-asked-why/2534169/

[Anonymous]

New Forbes article, that is a bit of an update to their July 29 article.
"Here Are The 13 (Mostly Southern) States Where Child Hospitalizations Are Soaring Amid Delta Surge"

Key Facts

Nearly 1,600 children were hospitalized with Covid-19 across the U.S. last week, according to hospital data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a new seven-day record and a 27% increase from the week prior—but the states with the most severe increases are also those battling the worst Covid-19 outbreaks.

Florida leads the country with almost 200 kids currently admitted and a rate of hospitalization up five-fold since July 8: 1.27 children hospitalized per 100,000 residents, the highest in the nation (amounting to roughly 54 kids hospitalized with Covid-19 each day).

Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, states where roughly 40% or more of intensive care unit beds are filled with Covid-19 patients, have the next highest rates of children hospitalized, at 0.93, 0.81 and 0.79 per 100,000 residents.

Louisiana and Alabama both admitted an average of nine children a day between Aug. 3 and Aug. 9, versus the average of 23 hospitalized daily during this period in Georgia.

Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas and Wyoming (states with broader Covid-19 case and hospitalization increases and vaccination rates all below the national average of 50%) have also all hit new pandemic records, according to CDC data, with many of their children’s hospitals either at or nearing capacity.

While the other states peaked earlier, South Carolina and Texas are currently at their highest rates of hospitalization, with Texas admitting an average of 40 children a day and South Carolina admitting three.

It’s not just states with lower vaccination rates reporting all-time highs of child hospitalizations: Hawaii and Maine, where more than half of residents are fully inoculated, each reached new peaks in the past two weeks as cases and hospitalizations among their general populations increased.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/08/11/here-are-the-12-mostly-southern-states-where-child-hospitalizations-are-soaring-amid-delta-surge/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very sad article! Makes me rethink full time in person school. We need to get creative to keep kids distanced. School districts should be upgrading filtration and providing medical grade masks too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/08/04/pediatrician-covid-children-delta/?itid=hp_opinions

At least the doctor who wrote it alludes to her cognitive biases around thinking COVID causes severe illness in children. It does, for a small percentage, and that's tragic in those cases. Of course it is. But we really, really need to avoid relying on these kinds of anecdotes to drive policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, thank you for posting this information.
I agree with PPs that the aggregate data is not really reliable because of the reporting issues, but the anecdotal data from hospitalists and pediatric specialists, is really troubling. It echoes what I've been hearing from pediatric specialists for months -- that they have been alarmed at the number of kids getting sick, the severity, and the breadth of symptoms.

I agree we are not Louisiana -- thank God we have done much better with vaccination. But our vaccination rates are still pretty depressing.

Vaccination rates for 12+ in MoCo are some of the highest in the country. That's not depressing at all, and it also goes a long way towards keeping kids healthy (as do the mask mandates MCPS will have in schools).

Lost in these anecdata are not only denominators, but pre-morbid conditions in these children that are clinically relevant. This severe illness is a tragedy--particularly because much of it is preventable--but it's also not useful to fear-monger.

" Vaccination rates in the District among students ages 12 to 17 are low, particularly among Black children, who account for about 65 percent of the city’s public school population. Fifty-one percent of White 12-to-15-year-olds have received at least one dose while just 14 percent of Black youths in the same age group have received one, according to city data."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-teen-vaccines-school/2021/08/04/cb2e03e8-f39d-11eb-a49b-d96f2dac0942_story.html

That does not bode well for school in a matter of weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Since we seem to drop a link here and there in various threads, here's a master thread of sorts.

Alabama:
https://www.wsfa.com/2021/07/28/alabama-reporting-about-30-pediatric-covid-hospitalizations/
Also in there: "Health officials claim 108 children in Alabama have developed the Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome of Childhood from COVID, with more kids under investigation."

Arkansas:
https://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-childrens-hospital-reports-record-high-for-covid-19-hospitalizations
"Of the 24 patients admitted, seven are in intensive care and four are on ventilators. None of the hospitalized patients have been fully vaccinated and more than half of the patients are eligible."

Mississippi:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/mississippi-health-officials-warn-delta-surge-12-children/story?id=78828192
"Of the seven children currently in the intensive care unit due to COVID-19, two are on ventilators [...]"

Missouri:
https://www.kctv5.com/coronavirus/childrens-mercy-reaches-capacity-due-to-increase-in-kids-with-covid-19-infectious-diseases/article_84988b54-ee63-11eb-899a-ab48134676d1.html
"COVID-19 cases are rising across the KC metro and children are being hospitalized at a higher rate compared to previous weeks." but the article also says the problem is compounded by a rise of other childhood illnesses.

Texas:
https://www.houstonpress.com/news/at-texas-childrens-some-kids-with-covid-need-ventilators-11610665
"Out of all the kids who show up to Texas Children’s concerned they may have COVID-19, “Currently, roughly 10 percent of those children who test positive do require hospitalization,” [...] “and roughly one-third of those may require critical care.” "[...]Texas Children’s Hospital system has treated over 150 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, also known as MIS-C [...]" "Texas Children’s has a dedicated “long-COVID” clinic to research and care for some of the long-term symptoms a COVID infection can leave children dealing with months later, including both fatigue and “some long-standing cardiac [and] pulmonary issues that may need to be addressed by a sub-specialist.”"

Oh my gosh, and not a blue state among em. Who woulda thunk it?