Category: Children
UK: 5% of children hospitalized with Covid-19 develop brain or nerve complications
A new UK study has found that around 1 in 20 of children hospitalised with COVID-19 develop brain or nerve complications linked to the viral infection. The research, published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health and led by the University of Liverpool, identifies a wide spectrum of neurological complications in children and suggests they may be more common than in adults admitted with COVID-19.
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
Deepti Gurdasani: “This is a virus that we need to eliminate”, condemns “herd immunity” policies
“There’s no country that has attained herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2. And, certainly, there are countries with different levels of vaccination. I mean, some countries have over 60 percent of their population fully vaccinated. There are also countries that have had natural exposure to the infection at very high rates. But it hasn’t extinguished the pandemic. We’ve always seen surges even after that. And I think that reflects several factors.
One, I think natural immunity can wane over time. And I think the durability of that immunity does depend on the severity of original infection. When infections are mild and asymptomatic, we can have at least weighting of neutralizing antibodies and how that correlates with waning immunity. We don’t know yet, but we know that re-infection, or the getting infected again with the virus, either the same variant or another variant, are far more common than we originally thought. Although there is protection, even over longer duration of time, it’s not absolute.”
WSWS.org interview with Dr. Deepti Gurdasani **
** One of just a handful of people on Earth who seems to understand the existential threat that Sars-CoV-2 poses
Dominic Minghella on “Learning to live with Covid”
"Learn to live with the virus" either means nothing, or it means, "Learn to be quiet about the unnecessary deaths of your loved ones, friends, and compatriots."
Ain't gonna happen.
— Dominic Minghella (@DMinghella) August 1, 2021
This 👆 👆 👆
Indonesia: Mortality rate in children as high as 40% in PCR confirmed Covid-19 cases
During the study period, 490 [child] patients were admitted and diagnosed with suspected and probable COVID-19. Of these patients, 50 (10.2%) were confirmed to have COVID-19, and 20 (40%) had a fatal outcome.
The fatality rate was higher in patients aged ≥10 years, categorized with severe disease upon admission, PaO2/FiO2 ratio ≤300 mmHg and chronic underlying diseases. The most common clinical manifestations were generalized symptoms, while acute respiratory distress syndrome (8/20) and septic shock (7/20) were the two most common causes of death. Increased procalcitonin, D-dimer, lactate dehydrogenase and presepsin levels were found in all fatal cases. One patient met the criteria of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
Conclusion: Our work highlights the high mortality rate in paediatric patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test. These findings might be related to or co-incided with COVID-19 infection. Further studies are needed to improve understanding of the role of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 in elaborating the mechanisms leading to death in children with comorbidities.
Pubmed paper: Mortality in children with positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction test: Lessons learned from a tertiary referral hospital in Indonesia
See also:
NYtimes report: Children Are Dying as Virus Surges in Indonesia – hundreds have died from Covid-19 in recent weeks, many of them under the age of 5.
Image by Fikih Firmansyah from Pixabay
More than half of young people with mild Covid-19 infections experienced Long Covid
Researchers at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, have followed 312 Covid-19 patients for an entire year. 247 of them home-isolated, while 65 were hospitalized. At six months, 61 per cent of all patients had persistent symptoms, the researchers found. Among those who home-isolated, 52 per cent still experienced various symptoms after half a year.
Photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash
UK: ONS estimates over 800,000 had Covid-19 this week
The latest ONS survey of UK Covid-19 infection has confirmed our suspicion that the Covid-19 epidemic has spiralled out of control in Britain, with more than 800,000 estimated to have been infected in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland last week.
England: 741,700estimated
Scotland: 65,100
Wales: 14,400
Northern Ireland: 10,900
Total: 832,100
UK: No wonder the app is pinging – around 1 million people currently have Covid-19 in Britain
UK: world-beaters in Covid-19 infection rates and hospitalisations
Yet more pictures that say a thousand words about the UK’s abysmal response to Covid-19. This is not government in any recognizable sense, this is cold, calculated, mass murder through neglect.
UK: No wonder the app is pinging – around 1 million people currently have Covid-19 in Britain
Israel: School capsules to return, “not to follow the dangerous path of Britain”
The Israeli Director General of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Nachman Ash, does not rule out return to school capsules or bubbles. Nachman Ash told Ynet that “we are preparing for a situation where there will be no choice but to reduce the size of the classrooms in red areas.” That the number of patients will rise sharply, not to follow the dangerous path of Britain.
On the preparations for the start of the school year, Prof. Ash said: “We are working very closely with the Ministry of Education to formulate a plan that includes both tests and a plan to prepare for situations where there are more infections and there are more contagious areas.” With the professional factors, and we are moving forward to agree on the matter” When asked if it was for example capsules in a red area, he answered in the affirmative.
Israel is also considering introducing a new quarantine system for inbound travellers and has banned fully vaccinated tourists from entry.
Ynet.co.il report (in Hebrew)
Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay
Bangladesh: new study shows 80% percent of children infected by Delta are under 10 years of age
The Chittagong study included children from newborns to 18-year-olds infected with coronavirus. The study found that 80 percent of the affected children are under 10 years of age. Delta variants have been identified in infants as young as eight months old.
The Sars-CoV-2 Delta variant is increasing corona infection among children in Chittagong. Of the 12 children who were recently selected for the coronavirus study, all were found to be infected with the Delta variant. The data was obtained by sequencing the genomes of 12 randomly selected children from Chittagong Maternal and Child Hospital and Chittagong General Hospital in the first week of June to July.
According to another study by the research team, 80 percent of adult Covid-19 patients are men, but children are the exception. Children are equally infected and infected with this variant. The presence of this variant was observed in 50 percent of boys and 50 percent of girls. Ninety-five percent of the children had fever and 60 percent had a cold and cough. However, one child was completely asymptomatic.
The head of the Corona unit of the General Hospital, Abdur Rab Masum said, “It is a matter of great concern that the level of covid among children is increasing. In this case, the need for specialized intensive care centers for children may increase in the coming days and the whole family should be more vigilant in the interest of children.
Image by Maruf Rahman from Pixabay
English Freedom Day: Lions led by Zombies
A short reminder of what happened after “Freedom Day” was announced in the Czech Republic on July 2nd 2020:
Covid-19 cases after “Freedom Day” in the Czech Republic in 2020:
Covid-19 deaths after “Freedom Day” in the Czech Republic in July 2020:
English Freedom Day – Lions led by Zombies.
UK: London sees a large rise in coronavirus cases as Freedom Day looms
As the UK Health minister has just found out, London is seeing a large rise in new Covid cases in both the vaccinated and unvaccinated population during the third UK wave. Although the Covid case numbers haven’t quite yet reached the same heights as the peak of the second UK wave in January 2021, the numbers are clearly headed in that same direction.
Below shows the extent of the virus infections on the 18th January 2021 during the peak of the second wave.
What is extraordinary is the similarity in the infection profiles for the two separate waves despite the fact the UK vaccination campaign had barely started in January 2021, and has now apparently reached of 90% of the adult population.
UK Chief Medical Officer – lockdown in 5 weeks
“I don’t think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again surprisingly fast”
The UK Government’s top medic has warned the number of people in hospital with coronavirus could reach “quite scary” levels within weeks and new coronavirus restrictions in England could be needed in just five weeks.
Chris Whitty’s stark warning came just days before has warned just days before Boris Johnsons’ ‘Freedom Day’ on Monday (July 19). The Chief Medical Officer sounded the alarm over a potential “scary” growth in hospitalisations which could leave the NHS “in trouble again surprisingly fast” once restrictions are lifted.
UK: International summit condemns Boris Johnson’s THIRD Covid-19 catastrophe
Boris Johnson’s “Freedom Day” plan to create herd immunity in the UK by having one huge summer Delta wave has been rightly criticised from scientists from around the globe. According to the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, the idea is that a Covid-19 wave in the summer will prevent an even worse wave in the winter. Our prediction is that Johnson will simply get two waves for the price of one – the wave he is promoting now, by removing all mitigations, and an even worse winter wave caused by yet another new variant.
Watch this space.
UK: vaccine breakthroughs now nearly HALF of all new Covid-19 cases
There are currently 15,537 new daily symptomatic cases in partly or fully vaccinated people, an increase of 40% from 11,084 new cases last week. It is estimated that among unvaccinated people in the UK there are currently 17,581 new daily symptomatic cases of COVID on average, based on PCR test data from up to five days ago, a decrease of 22% from 22,638 last week. The overall number of estimated cases is 33,118 which remains similar to last week’s figure which was 33,723.
With cases in the vaccinated group continuing to rise, the number of new cases in the vaccinated population is set to overtake the unvaccinated in the coming days.
Update to this story:
UK: Covid-19 study shows 40% vaccine breakthrough after changing its methodology
Last week….
UK: Vaccine breakthroughs now one third of all new Covid-19 cases