Special COVID-19 Edition
Special COVID-19 Edition
Special COVID-19 Edition 
COVID-19 trends among children
There’s been much to celebrate when it comes to kids and COVID-19; vaccines are approved for children ages 5 years and older and cases are slowly declining after a summer of rapid community spread.

Still, the last few months of Delta variant-driven COVID-19 cases have brought us insights and important lessons worth sharing as we continue to navigate the pandemic.

Earlier this fall, two Children’s Minnesota experts joined our Grand Rounds to share the latest trends on how COVID-19 is impacting children and adolescents: Anu Kalaskar, MD, infectious disease medical director, and Joseph Kurland, MPH, CIC, infection preventionist and vaccine specialist.

Listen to the free one-hour course here.
Epidemiological trends in children
Anyone working at a provider’s office will tell you that clinics are busy with a variety of respiratory illnesses. Top among those are respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and, of course, COVID-19. Kurland shares these insights about RSV infections:
  • One reason we’re seeing more RSV cases may be the uptick in testing. Many children are required to test for COVID-19 to return to school, sports or daycare.
  • A more severe strain of RSV would result in a higher percentage of hospitalizations among those infected. This has not been the case.
Understanding post-COVID impacts on children
There is still much to learn about long-term effects from the COVID-19 pandemic on children. It is clear, however, that children and adolescents have experienced some physical and psychosocial adverse effects. In her conversation, Dr. Kalaskar discusses:
  • Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) cases continue to follow spikes of acute COVID-19 cases.
  • A small study out of Australia suggests that post-COVID symptoms among children tend to be mild.
  • Behavioral health continues to be a challenge for children and adolescents. Emergency department visits related to mental health increased 24% for children ages 5-11 and 31% for adolescents ages 12-17.
  • Body mass index (BMI) measurements considered "overweight" have roughly doubled during the pandemic compared to the same pre-pandemic period.
Vaccines are safe and effective – for adults and children
Healthcare professionals and those directly impacted by COVID-19 have clear insight into how deadly this pandemic has been. During the recorded conversation, Kurland drives this point home with these startling U.S. statistics from The Join Commission:
  • 80 people are killed by tornadoes every year.
  • 38,000 people die in traffic fatalities every year.
  • 36,000 people die from the flu every year.
In contrast:
  • 614,531 people died from COVID-19 from Jan. 2020 to Aug. 18, 2021.
  • 433,971 of those COVID-19 related deaths occurred before vaccines became available (Jan. 2020 to Feb. 2021).
  • 1,400 vaccinated individuals have died from COVID-19.
Instances of myocarditis and pericarditis in children 
Health professionals and researchers continue to closely monitor the risk of myocarditis among children who have been vaccinated or have contracted COVID-19. Recent research has found interesting evidence that suggests children who become sick with COVID-19 have a higher risk of developing myocarditis compared to those who are vaccinated.
  • Children who had a natural infection of COVID-19 have a risk ratio of 18.3 in developing myocarditis, compared to a 3.2 risk ratio after vaccination.
Additionally, one study looked at 1 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine delivered to adolescents ages 12-17. They found:
  • 8 cases of myocarditis in females
  • 73 cases of myocarditis in males
However, those vaccines also:
  • Prevented more than 134,000 cases of COVID-19
  • Prevented more than 1,000 hospitalizations due to COVID-19
  • Prevented 270 ICU admissions
  • Prevented 8 deaths
Stay up to date on the latest
What we know about COVID-19 continues to evolve. Learn more about these topics and how COVID-19 is affecting kids.

Listen to the full one-hour presentation here. Please note you will need to create a username and password to access the free recording.
Also, listen to the Talking Pediatrics podcast episode for a shorter version and updated information.
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