Thought of the Day - October 15 2021 - You're Kidding

I have started seeing more and more articles highlighting that kids are getting sick. Listening to our authorities here in BC, I am starting to hear more urgency concerning the need for COVID child vaccines ( Thought of the Day - October 13 2021 - BC's Next Vaxxes ), and mask mandates for schools (the absence of which may be a key reason why BC fared much worse than Ontario or Quebec with the fourth wave). Indeed, I am thinking that people in the know, now believe our fifth wave will be driven by, or could most affect, our kids.

It is a simple fact, as published by Health Canada, that, cumulatively since the start of the pandemic, our largest demographic to have contracted COVID are actually under 19.

Wait, what? A year ago there was a very different picture.

Indeed when you look at this graph (unfortunately Health Canada does not provide this data for more detailed analysis), you can see, with the original strain (the one that the WHO has no new name for) from earlier last year, the proportion in the 0-19 age category was very small (<10%). This spring, when the Alpha variant was predominant, the proportion was much higher (but still <25%). And now, with the Delta variant, the 0-19s are becoming the largest group (>35%).

Don't get me wrong, kids are resilient. They are very unlikely to end up in hospital and even less likely to die, but let's be honest with the return to school they are now the spreaders. And, although there will soon be a push for kids to get vaccinated, as we have seen across the adult population, this will probably do little to stop school transmission.

But there is one more element to the emerging information. Young children, those below the age of five, are also seeing effects. Indeed in the UK, there has been a 41% increase in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), compared to previous years. It is unclear if this has any direct link to undiagnosed COVID. More likely there is an indirect link, through COVID containment measures, in that infants, who have been isolated over the last 18 months, were not exposed to RSV in their early years. They thus did not build up immunity and therefore we are now seeing more significant symptoms in young children.

In short, the next months may be very interesting, as the health focus switches from the elderly to the young.

Cheers

Cliff