U.S. has seen sharp rise in COVID-19 infections among children

To the fierce debate in which the United States is immersed around people who refuse to vaccinate and cause a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in their communities, he added. increased infections in children, when statistics showed that in previous months they had decreased. Children without comorbidities usually develop the disease without severe symptoms, although they are a source of the virus’s spread that experts view with concern. Now, in addition, experts have called for taking the issue more seriously and preventing minors from getting sick.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (PAA) He said yesterday that more than 23,550 cases of COVID in minors were reported between July 8 and July 15, nearly double what was reported at the end of June.

According to the same source, the age range among those newly infected varies and has revealed difficulties in collecting data, as some states include people under 19 and others under 14.

The AAP recalled that it is rare for children to contract severe COVID-19, but they complained because there is a delay in assisting people in this age group with available vaccines. The only inoculant approved to date for use in children 12 to 17 years of age is that manufactured by Pfizer-BionTech.

Experts have warned that the highly contagious Delta variant could make conditions worse for very young people, many of whom are not yet old enough to be vaccinated.

“So many people, unvaccinated individuals, are getting Delta that the kids take away, and I think that will make it very difficult at the start of the school year,” said the doctor. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

The director of the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, said during a hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions of the Senate of this country the risk that children are at threat of contracting COVID-19 should be taken more seriously.

“I think we are falling into the bad idea of ​​saying that only 400 of those 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in children,” he warned. “Children are not supposed to die. Therefore, 400 is a huge amount for the respiratory season ”, manifested. There is still no vaccine in any country approved for use in children under 12, but pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna are conducting clinical trials. In the case of the first of these labs, its officials estimated that, if testing progresses as planned, the incoculants could begin to be used at the end of this year or in the first months of next year.

It is “Very likely” data from COVID-19 vaccines in children under 12 will be available in late fall or early winter, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Allergy Institute and infectious diseases, at the same Senate committee hearing. “But that doesn’t mean it will suddenly be allowed to happen,” he said, because “it will be a regulatory decision that the FDA will have to make.”

Pfizer spokespersons told CNN that data from their vaccine study on children aged 5 to 11 could arrive next September and that they would seek clearance from the US drug control agency. , the FDA.

In the meantime, studies in children 2 to 5 years old would be ready shortly thereafter and those in babies 6 months to 2 years old could be ready in October or November and then seek emergency clearance from the FDA. .

Moderna, for his part, did not give an estimate on the performance of his vaccination tests in boys aged 6 months to 11 years.

The AAP has released a new guide recommending the universal use of masks in schools for all people 2 years of age and older, even for teens who have been vaccinated. Instead, the CDC recommended earlier this month that 2-year-olds who aren’t fully immunized wear face masks indoors.

“I think it’s vitally important that our schools are open for full face-to-face learning in the fall, ”Walensky said at Tuesday’s hearing. And he insisted that the “most important” thing is for everyone to get vaccinated.

“The best would be to vaccinate everyone who can be vaccinated,” he added. “Surround unvaccinated children who are not yet eligible (for vaccination) with vaccinated people to protect them,” he said.

Official data shows that of about 25 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States, about 8.9 million have started their COVID-19 vaccination schedule, according to CDC data.

Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, considered that “children are at risk” because there are “many children under 12 who do not even have the opportunity to be vaccinated”. “If I were the father of a child of this age (up to 11), I would like all these children to wear masks,” he said.

Even with expert recommendations on the need for vaccination and the use of masks, some US states have prohibited by law from requiring citizens in this regard.

“What this tells me is going to happen is the number of daycare closures that have occurred due to the epidemics, and the exposures and camp closures that are occurring,” said José Romero, sArkansas Department of Health Secretary of Health at a US News and World Report event on vaccine inequality and misinformation. “What I try to do in public and in private with my own patients is to emphasize the importance of the mask.” Arkansas is one of the states that has laws against mandatory vaccination.

This state, he revealed, has a large children’s hospital that has already had a “significant number” of children with COVID-19, Romero said, which, along with cases of other respiratory viruses, has exhausted the institution’s resources. “In three weeks, when we start school, it’s going to get worse, and that’s what worries me a lot, a lot,” he said.

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