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Home > Portable Practical Pediatrics > Covid-19 in Children: What Have We Learned So Far? (Pedcast by Doc Smo and Sonya Corina Williams)
Podcast: Portable Practical Pediatrics
Episode:

Covid-19 in Children: What Have We Learned So Far? (Pedcast by Doc Smo and Sonya Corina Williams)
Category: Kids & family
Duration: 00:11:53
Publish Date: 2020-09-05 23:16:18
Description: 6 months in and what have we learned about Covid-19 and children? Are their symptoms different?  Are children as likely to get infected as older people and if infected,  can they shed the virus and make others sick? And how likely are children to get a severe illness ?  Stay tuned for this "don't miss" episode of Portable Practical Pediatrics to find out the answers to these questions Image by Pixabay Musical Introduction The Pandemic So Far for Children in the U.S. Six months into the U.S. phase of the pandemic and there are so many questions regarding Covid-19 as it relates to children. Research into vaccines and therapies for adults have been the focus of the daily headlines probably because so few children have died of the direct infection. Clearly, age is the biggest risk factor for severe disease. But research is starting to roll in about the roll children play in this pandemic. Just because research in children has been sparse to date, doesn't mean that this age group is unaffected by SARS-CoV-2. In the following pedcast, I am going to lay out some of the key questions researchers are asking and when possible, give you their answers as we know them today. But remember, I am recording this podcast in September 2020 and things can change so tune in regularly for updates. I'll do my best to make you the best informed parent in the room. The Questions Needing Answers Question  1. Can children get infected and if so, do they shed virus that can make others ill? Well, we don't have to dig too hard into the literature or news to find an answer to the first part of this question. We have all seen universities closing down rapidly after just a few weeks of opening due to clusters of Covid-19 among their students and staff, The University of North Carolina in my home state, being one of the first in the U.S.. Similar outbreaks have been seen now in many other universities and even high schools, the most famous of which was in Israel in June 2020 where one ill student seems to have started a cluster that rapidly spread through the school to other students and faculty. And it is not hard to understand how this happens since we now know that a person infected with SARS-CoV-2 sheds the virus the day before they get ill, during their illness, and a few weeks after recovery similar to most viral infections. Additionally, we now know that after age two years, the young preschool and elementary aged children have fewer symptoms that indicate illness. This fact makes identifying Covid-19 in children very difficult.  More on that in a minute. And finally, as far as shedding of the virus, the news here is not good. Recent studies have shown that even though young children are unlikely to get seriously ill from SARS-CoV-2, they can shed  and possibly pass on 10-100X the amount of virus in their nasal secretions than adults with severe illness do! Yong children with Covid-19 may indeed be the generators of community spread like they are for so many other respiratory viruses.  Some epidemiologists even go as far as to surmise that the biggest contributor to flattening the curve that we saw last spring didn't come from our social distancing, but rather from the closure of schools. Question 2. How likely are children to get a severe case of Covid-19 that leads to death? This is an interesting one. I think the Chinese answered this question for us before Covid-19 even reached our shores- children are much much much less likely to get severe illness than adults. Thank goodness. Severe infections in children are possible but not likely. If infected, children usually get mild illness thank goodness. Of those children who do go onto hospitalization, as you might expect, a disproportionate number have underlying other health problems  like obesity, underlying lung disease, or a history of prematurity.  For reasons that are not fully understood however, children of certain ethnic groups have a higher chance of severe illne...
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