New data from CDC:

Weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among children and adolescents rose nearly five-fold during late June–mid-August 2021, coinciding with increased circulation of the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. The proportions of hospitalized children and adolescents with severe disease were similar before and during the period of Delta predominance. Hospitalization rates were 10 times higher among unvaccinated than among fully vaccinated adolescents.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7036e2.htm?s_cid=mm7036e2_e&ACSTrackingID=USCDC_921-DM65137&ACSTrackingLabel=MMWR%20Early%20Release%20-%20Vol.%2070%2C%20September%203%2C%202021&deliveryName=USCDC_921-DM65137

Also, if you'd like a discussion of this CDC article, Your Local Epidemiologist has one here:
https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/pediatric-hospitalizations-some-important?fbclid=IwAR18lbDJXR-es95_E7SL8s1ZeuCLl3EvofbmaEoGcSXPhMV0dr3QVGFZEz4

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Post just published this. Some kids are clearly at high risk.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/13/children-hospitalizations-covid-delta/

Yeah, this Post piece is worrying me because it says that frontline workers are reporting 1) different initial symptoms in children with delta than with previous strains, indicating that delta really does behave differently in kids, and 2) seeing more healthy kids hospitalized than with any of the previous waves.

It's all anecdotal though. Too soon for good data. I don't know what to think. I hate all this uncertainty.

I wonder how much of it is that delta confers much, much higher viral loads, which translate to more severe illness. So many adults are less careful than they were, so whatever precautions were being taken that reduced viral loads (masks, distancing) that are no longer there probably combines poorly with the increased transmissability of delta.

But yeah: we really do need better data. The UK data are encouraging.

If it is the case that places without mask mandates, low vaccination rates, and general disregard for mitigation efforts see higher delta viral loads, that suggests we would not see the same thing in DC. Does anyone have any stories about pediatric hospital emissions in places like Boston or other areas that are masking and mitigating, and have similar vax rates to DC?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Post just published this. Some kids are clearly at high risk.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/13/children-hospitalizations-covid-delta/

Yeah, this Post piece is worrying me because it says that frontline workers are reporting 1) different initial symptoms in children with delta than with previous strains, indicating that delta really does behave differently in kids, and 2) seeing more healthy kids hospitalized than with any of the previous waves.

It's all anecdotal though. Too soon for good data. I don't know what to think. I hate all this uncertainty.

I wonder how much of it is that delta confers much, much higher viral loads, which translate to more severe illness. So many adults are less careful than they were, so whatever precautions were being taken that reduced viral loads (masks, distancing) that are no longer there probably combines poorly with the increased transmissability of delta.

But yeah: we really do need better data. The UK data are encouraging.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/delta-variant-covid-children/619712/

This Atlantic article has an alarming title but some good info.

The article starts with some alarming descriptions and then goes on its second half which sort of undoes everything from the first half:

"Amid all the chaos is perhaps one tentative silver lining for children. The new variant appears to be following the long-standing trend that kids are, on average, more resistant to the coronavirus’s effects. Although Delta is a more cantankerous version of the virus than its predecessors, researchers don’t yet have evidence that it is specifically worse for children, who are still getting seriously sick only a small fraction of the time. Less than 2 percent of known pediatric COVID-19 cases, for instance, result in hospitalization, sometimes far less.
...
The alarming rise of pediatric cases seems to reflect the grimness of infectious arithmetic: More kids are falling ill because more children are being infected; more children are being infected because this virus has seeped so thoroughly into the communities most vulnerable to it.

Reports of more sickness—maybe even distinct sickness—from states such as Arkansas are worrisome. But maybe these startling effects are explicable. Permar said she isn’t yet seeing this trend play out on a national scale, particularly in states where demand for vaccines has been high. Perhaps kids in high-transmission states, where exposures to Delta are heavy and frequent, are simply being hit with more virus. Delta is already ace at accumulating in the airways of people of all ages, more frequently and more consistently than any variant before, according to Jennifer Dien Bard, the director of the clinical microbiology and virology laboratory at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. More inbound pathogen might further increase the amount of virus that sticks around to run roughshod over the body. That said, experts told me, it’s still possible that new data could pinpoint a unique effect of Delta on children, especially because so much of what we know already comes from studying adults.

The United Kingdom offers some encouraging clues, and might serve as a bellwether for America’s coming months. The variant’s recent reign triggered a climb in pediatric cases there as well, but kids didn’t seem to make up an unexpected proportion of the surge, Alasdair Munro, a pediatric infectious-disease physician at the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility, told me. As things stand, he said, “there’s no indication” that Delta poses a particular menace to kids."

Anonymous wrote:Thank you, PP, and for posting these articles and data. And I am a former MSNBC watcher, but I have really been turned off cable news media by their breathless coverage of the pandemic, especially with regard to how it has impacted kids. They have consistently failed to acknowledge that by far the biggest impact on and risk to kids has come from our pandemic response choices and not from the virus itself, and have often twisted or cherry picked the data to create the maximum terrifying effect on parents. As this forum shows, it’s been working very well.

+100
I've stopped watching the news.

Anonymous wrote:The Post just published this. Some kids are clearly at high risk.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/13/children-hospitalizations-covid-delta/

Yeah, this Post piece is worrying me because it says that frontline workers are reporting 1) different initial symptoms in children with delta than with previous strains, indicating that delta really does behave differently in kids, and 2) seeing more healthy kids hospitalized than with any of the previous waves.

It's all anecdotal though. Too soon for good data. I don't know what to think. I hate all this uncertainty.

The Post just published this. Some kids are clearly at high risk.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/13/children-hospitalizations-covid-delta/

Anonymous wrote:Thank you, PP, and for posting these articles and data. And I am a former MSNBC watcher, but I have really been turned off cable news media by their breathless coverage of the pandemic, especially with regard to how it has impacted kids. They have consistently failed to acknowledge that by far the biggest impact on and risk to kids has come from our pandemic response choices and not from the virus itself, and have often twisted or cherry picked the data to create the maximum terrifying effect on parents. As this forum shows, it’s been working very well.

And to add, it’s not just cable news, but newspapers as well.

Thank you, PP, and for posting these articles and data. And I am a former MSNBC watcher, but I have really been turned off cable news media by their breathless coverage of the pandemic, especially with regard to how it has impacted kids. They have consistently failed to acknowledge that by far the biggest impact on and risk to kids has come from our pandemic response choices and not from the virus itself, and have often twisted or cherry picked the data to create the maximum terrifying effect on parents. As this forum shows, it’s been working very well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a continuing problem with the numbers of child hospitalizations being reported.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-tribune-erroneously-reports-5800-children-hospitalized-covid

Yes, this link is Fox News, but most MSM isn't sharing this. The number of children hospitalized for COVID over the last week in Texas was reported by the Texas Tribune was 5,800. When that's the total cumulative number since the start of COVID. This was only later corrected after being noticed by a Bloomberg reporter, but after it was picked up and run by others, including a tweet from a Washington Post blogger. Just a couple of weeks ago the same thing happened when a county health department official tweeted an inflated number, picked up by national media, and later corrected by the health department official.

This isn't to say hospitalizations of kids isn't increasing, and concerning. But reporters just aren't doing the basics.

Like this article
https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2021/08/north-texas-pediatric-covid-19-hospitalizations-are-up-600-percent-since-june/

People in Dallas are losing their minds about no pediatric ICU beds. The articles are all like this…70+ total pediatric hospital cases in Dallas…but, no mention of how many of these kids are in those full ICUs.

At least this article hints that the ICU issue isn’t because of covid, but instead RSV (“ Handling the COVID-19 cases would not be as much of a stressor on the hospital’s emergency department and intensive care units if they weren’t also experiencing an unprecedented surge of other severe respiratory viruses”)

This article also hints that these patients are mostly teens “ Teens who are eligible to be vaccinated are also the ones who are most likely to have an intense infection, says Dr. Nicholas Rister, an infectious disease expert at Cook Children’s. “Teenagers behave more like adults regarding COVID, and the younger kids are going to do exceptionally well,” he says. “Older teenagers especially have the same risk factors as adults.””

Most of the Dallas articles do not include those hints…instead they are written to imply that ICUs are stuffed with preschooler covid patients, sending the message that parents of small children should panic. The real message should be to watch out for RSV and get your teen vaccinated.

I've posted before but my MIL is a nurse in a pediatric ER in the Baltimore area. She's seeing mostly RSV in the younger set (younger than 5) and it's more severe than the covid cases in that population. Covid is mostly in teens. And the pediatric ICUs in this area are full of RSV.

Anonymous wrote:There's a continuing problem with the numbers of child hospitalizations being reported.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-tribune-erroneously-reports-5800-children-hospitalized-covid

Yes, this link is Fox News, but most MSM isn't sharing this. The number of children hospitalized for COVID over the last week in Texas was reported by the Texas Tribune was 5,800. When that's the total cumulative number since the start of COVID. This was only later corrected after being noticed by a Bloomberg reporter, but after it was picked up and run by others, including a tweet from a Washington Post blogger. Just a couple of weeks ago the same thing happened when a county health department official tweeted an inflated number, picked up by national media, and later corrected by the health department official.

This isn't to say hospitalizations of kids isn't increasing, and concerning. But reporters just aren't doing the basics.

Like this article
https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2021/08/north-texas-pediatric-covid-19-hospitalizations-are-up-600-percent-since-june/

People in Dallas are losing their minds about no pediatric ICU beds. The articles are all like this…70+ total pediatric hospital cases in Dallas…but, no mention of how many of these kids are in those full ICUs.

At least this article hints that the ICU issue isn’t because of covid, but instead RSV (“ Handling the COVID-19 cases would not be as much of a stressor on the hospital’s emergency department and intensive care units if they weren’t also experiencing an unprecedented surge of other severe respiratory viruses”)

This article also hints that these patients are mostly teens “ Teens who are eligible to be vaccinated are also the ones who are most likely to have an intense infection, says Dr. Nicholas Rister, an infectious disease expert at Cook Children’s. “Teenagers behave more like adults regarding COVID, and the younger kids are going to do exceptionally well,” he says. “Older teenagers especially have the same risk factors as adults.””

Most of the Dallas articles do not include those hints…instead they are written to imply that ICUs are stuffed with preschooler covid patients, sending the message that parents of small children should panic. The real message should be to watch out for RSV and get your teen vaccinated.

There's a continuing problem with the numbers of child hospitalizations being reported.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-tribune-erroneously-reports-5800-children-hospitalized-covid

Yes, this link is Fox News, but most MSM isn't sharing this. The number of children hospitalized for COVID over the last week in Texas was reported by the Texas Tribune was 5,800. When that's the total cumulative number since the start of COVID. This was only later corrected after being noticed by a Bloomberg reporter, but after it was picked up and run by others, including a tweet from a Washington Post blogger. Just a couple of weeks ago the same thing happened when a county health department official tweeted an inflated number, picked up by national media, and later corrected by the health department official.

This isn't to say hospitalizations of kids isn't increasing, and concerning. But reporters just aren't doing the basics.

https://www.cbs46.com/news/covid-cases-remain-low-at-childrens-healthcare-of-atlanta-hospitals/article_3c30a83a-fbb8-11eb-80ae-b34a5dc7974c.html

COVID cases remain low at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta hospitals

ATLANTA (CBS46) -- The COVID caseload is up at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta but even still that number is low.

Dr. Jim Fortenberry is the Chief Medical Officer at Children’s and said they are currently caring for an average of 13-20 COVID patients a day between all three of their hospitals.

“What we have not seen is a specific increase in severity of illness in children overall,” Fortenberry said. “Thankfully most children who have a COVID 19 infection, the overwhelming majority have minimal or very mild symptoms. Of those 13-20 patients, a great majority of them have an underlying illness such as Cancer, Diabetes, Asthma or Sickle Cell Disease.”

On Thursday, the Emergency Room wait time at Children's Egleston Hospital is more than 2-hours. Health officials said the long wait is due primarily to parents taking their children to the ER to be tested for the virus.

“What we are trying to encourage families to do is if your child just needs testing or your concern is that he or she was exposed to the virus to utilize community testing sites,” Fortenberry said.

Lastly, Dr. Fortenberry said it's important for children ages 12 and up to get vaccinated, calling it the best line of defense.

“It’s really important to note that of the vaccine eligible patients that get admitted to our hospital, about 90-percent of them are unvaccinated,” Fortenberry said.

Fortenberry went on to say their COVID caseload is manageable, and they have plenty of bed space. In fact, he said they’re seeing more cases of RSV and common cold in children right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not understand the difference in the outcomes in Germany and UK with kids and Delta, and the American South now. Why is there a surge in kids in hospitals and icu ‘s in the South??

This is just a guess, but because of higher vaccination rates in Germany and UK. Kids are most likely to get covid from a family member, and you've got low vaccination rates amongst the parents in the South (as well as the kids that are eligible).

But also, the increase in ICU hospitalizations overall is likely still a statistical blip. The stories are alarming, but are not very nuanced. There have also been reports that more kids are being hospitalized with RSV right now (likely because they were in quarantine during the usual time when kids get it) so that's filling up beds too. So the "the beds are full!" stories don't often report how many of those (10? 20?) beds are used by RSV patients versus covid patients.

Wouldn’t those RSV kids be below age three mostly?

Haven't a clue. Would they? And why would that matter? Those beds would still be potentially taken up by RSV (not covid) patients.

Anonymous wrote:I do not understand the difference in the outcomes in Germany and UK with kids and Delta, and the American South now. Why is there a surge in kids in hospitals and icu ‘s in the South??

Maybe some of the kids in hospitals in the US wouldn’t be admitted if they were in Europe (socialized medicine and all).

Also, obesity.