Since the start of the pandemic, it has been seen that very few adolescents have become severely ill with Covid-19 who need to be hospitalized. The US CDC reported Friday that those who did were about one-third who were admitted to ICUs, and 5% required ventilators.
These findings underscore the importance of vaccinating kids, experts said. “Much of this suffering can be prevented,” CDC chief Rochelle Walensky said. “Vaccination is way out of this pandemic.”
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the committee on infectious diseases at the American Academy of Pediatrics said, “The data also run counter to claims that influenza is more threatening to children than Covid-19, an argument that has been used to reopen schools and to question the value of vaccines for children. The study found that the number of hospitalisations related to Covid-19 among adolescents in the US was about three times as high as hospitalisations linked to influenza over three recent flu seasons. There’s a very strong case to be made for preventing a disease that causes hospitalizations and deaths.”
As compared to adults, children have a much lower likelihood overall of becoming seriously ill or dying from coronavirus, but the risks are thought to increase with age. Nearly 4 million children have tested Covid positive since the pandemic started as compared with 30n million cases among adults, according to the most recent data collected by the academy. Still, about 16,500 children have been hospitalised for Covid-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 322 have died, making it one of the leading causes of death. NYT
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