Should children go back to school? The contagious doctor appeals to the parents

The children will return to school soon. Meanwhile, experts warn that it will be one of the main factors of the expected increase in infections. What could happen? Do parents have anything to fear? What is the best way to protect them from getting sick? “We have one weapon against the fourth wave and everything else,” says Dr. Lidia Stopyra, specialist in infectious diseases and paediatrics.

1. From September 1, children start full-time education. Experts predict that returns from holidays and the return of children to school will have the greatest impact on the increase in the incidence
2. Dr. Stopyra is straightforward: we have one weapon against the fourth wave and everything else – vaccination. Meanwhile, we have 30-40 percent. vaccinated adolescents, and children under the age of 12 are not yet vaccinated against COVID-19
3. The specialist admits that she sees situations when parents regret not having vaccinated their children. Who understand that because of this decision they fell ill and ended up in the hospital
4. What can happen when the children return to school? Dr. Stopyra: probably in the third week of September, significant spikes in the disease will begin. However, if the restrictions include the closure of schools, the situation will calm down. Otherwise it will only get worse.
5. What is the best way to protect children, including unvaccinated ones, from falling ill? Zakaźnik explained in an interview with Medonet
6. You can find more important ones on the Onet homepage.

Monika Mikołajska / Medonet: Students returning to school will struggle with one of the most dangerous periods of a pandemic for children – a doctor, Leana Wen recently told CNN. The predominant more infectious Delta variant, the increasing number of infections, the fact that still many adults are not vaccinated, many are not wearing face masks. We can relate these factors to our country. Do you agree with the expert’s opinion?

Dr Lidia Stopyra: In the USA, the fourth wave is already very visible, it is just beginning here. It is worth remembering that it will be different from the previous ones. Even though the vaccination statistics should be higher, we have a lot of people vaccinated. In the spring wave, only individual people were vaccinated (the vaccination campaign began at the end of December – editor’s note). We expect that NICU places, but also in cemeteries, will be occupied by people not vaccinated against COVID-19.

Vaccination offers protection against severe COVID-19 for people with a healthy immune system. There are also convalescents. Unfortunately, some of them from a year ago or more, so you will have to keep an eye on the situation. But everything will be verified by life.

Of course, the development of the fourth wave will also depend on the introduced restrictions – what will apply, when, to whom. Back to the kids and the fourth wave. Remember that vaccinations are available from the age of 12, so younger children are not vaccinated at all, and those over 12 years of age are vaccinated rather poorly.

Statistics say about 30-40 percent. vaccinated adolescents, with the least vaccinated group being 12 years of age.

Exactly. Therefore, we doctors are more pediatric to the fourth wave. If the restrictions are not introduced early enough, we will have a lot of cases among children. And that means a return to distance learning.

The peak of the fourth wave is expected in the second half of November. So we still have time to avoid it, i.e. for as many people as possible, including children, to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Remember that it takes at least five weeks to develop full immunity. If they get vaccinated now, that time will be the end of September. It is clearly the last bell.

30 – 40 percent vaccinated adolescents are rather few. What level of immunization in this group would be such a desired minimum?

Remember that we still have convalescents who are also resistant to the pathogen. We have a lot of them among children, although it is difficult to say how many exactly. We do not even know about many of them, because children were the least tested group. But when we take them into the ward and test them for them, we identify many with antibodies. This is proof that they have passed COVID-19. However, this is not enough to be able to forget about the increase in infections and lockdown.

90 percent immunized people ensures that the epidemic situation should not develop and is relatively safe. If we estimate the convicted persons at 10 – 20 percent, then those vaccinated – including children – should be 70 – 80 percent.

Experts caution that the return of children to school will be one of the main factors in the expected increase in infections. So the question automatically arises whether stationary learning is a good idea? Or maybe it is better to postpone back to school and focus on hybrid or only distance learning?

It would make sense to postpone the start of full-time schooling if the children were vaccinated during this time. Because we actually have one weapon against the fourth wave, and everything else – vaccinations. For now, we have no other option. If we don’t get vaccinated, whatever we do, it will be bad. An example is the previous wave, when we recorded 30 thousand. infections daily.

Let us assume theoretically that almost 100 percent will be vaccinated. those who can. Although sometimes positive test results appear, casuistically, from time to time someone will become more ill, but in fact everything will be able to function normally. We wouldn’t have to convert other wards to covid, single beds would be occupied. There would be no need to postpone treatments, dates for cancer patients …

Suppose the children are back in school. What development does the doctor predict?

I think it will be similar to last year. Significant increases in the incidence will probably begin in the third week of September. However, if the restrictions include the closure of schools, the situation will calm down. Otherwise it will only get worse.

Let’s remember that the development of the fourth wave depends primarily on the level of vaccination, but when it is insufficient – also on what infectivity we have, what sanitary regime we apply, what restrictions we introduce. If almost everyone got vaccinated, you wouldn’t have to think about closing anything.

And how, in the context of the fourth wave, do you assess the situation of children before the age of 12, i.e. those who, so far, cannot be vaccinated? This group is the most vulnerable to infection, especially in the face of the more infectious Delta variant. Do parents have anything to fear?

In the near future, we expect the registration of the COVID-19 vaccine for children over six years of age. It is possible that this will happen in the fall. As for the present situation and the unvaccinated children, they will fall ill. Fortunately, most are still mildly infected with SARS-CoV-2, so I don’t think there’s a problem finding places for them in hospitals. We know for sure that there will be children requiring hospitalization.

We have hospitalized about a thousand children in my department so far. A dozen or so were in a life-threatening condition. However, it is not a lot. So I think when there is an increase in infections, we will deal with it. And above all, we will wait for a vaccine for the youngest. I would like to add that children up to six months of age have antibodies from mothers who have been vaccinated. In short, when a vaccine for the little ones is in use, everyone will have a chance to protect themselves. It does not change the fact that if everyone who can get vaccinated today, the epidemic situation would be quite good.

Why do you think so few children are vaccinated? Why do parents fear the most here?

If we are talking about anti-vaccines, they are immune to any arguments. Their aggression level is incredibly high and completely irrational to me. There is no discussion at all with these people. Only when misfortune and illness occur do they have a moment of reflection. We already meet situations when parents regret not having vaccinated their children. Who understand that because of this decision they fell ill and ended up in the hospital. Because in fact, the little patients we have are children who are not vaccinated, even though they could have been.

The parents I am talking about are people who believed the false information about vaccinations, and there are many of them. Meanwhile, clinical trials and our own practice clearly show that vaccines are safe. The day after the vaccination, your baby may feel worse, but nothing else.

An important reason in favor of vaccinating children is the fact that they will be protected not only against the severe course of COVID-19, but also against complications, including severe PIMS. Why is it so dangerous for children?

PIMS, i.e. the multi-system inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19, leads to multi-organ failure, with particular emphasis on heart and circulatory failure. This creates a situation where children require intensive medical care. Moreover, PIMS is life-threatening. Some of them died as a result – there were also such cases in Poland.

Worse yet, we are unable to predict which child will have this complication. All the little patients hospitalized in my ward for PIMS were not children with special burdens. They passed COVID-19 very gently, often completely asymptomatically, and only antibodies were indicative of the disease.

When children were vaccinated, it was said that we were doing it to protect others. It is not like that. We vaccinate children to protect them from serious illness, from complications, but also from damage caused by lockdowns.

I wanted to refer to severe COVID-19 waveforms in children. Most of them are still mildly infected with the coronavirus, on the other hand, more and more information is appearing, incl. from the USA that there are more and more severe cases, that it is necessary to take care in the ICU, under a ventilator, and that there are also infants and small children among seriously ill patients.

I hope that this will not be the case with us. We see a certain regularity – COVID-19 is harder for people of other races than white. Hence, in communities that differ in this regard, there will be more severe cases of infection. Of course, we must be very vigilant with such reports. The virus mutates and the situation may be different with the next wave.

1. There are more and more infections among children in the USA. Experts: This is just the beginning

All the more so as there are hypotheses that over time COVID-19 will become mainly a childhood disease. Taking into account vaccinations and survivors, it will become possible that mainly children (and unvaccinated adults) will remain available to the virus.

It all depends on how the vaccination process will go. To what extent will we use the only weapon we have against SARS-CoV-2. If we start vaccinating children from the age of six, there will be a situation where few people will get sick and it will not affect the functioning of schools, businesses and our entire reality. If the situation is as it is now, COVID-19 will actually become a disease of children first and foremost.

1. COVID-19 Will Become a Childhood Disease? Dr. Grzesiowski: There are such hypotheses

You also need to take into account subsequent mutations of the coronavirus and how effective the vaccines will be against them. Of course, we can modify these preparations, so we are not defenseless against future variants, and we should not be afraid that there will be one for which no vaccine will work. The only question is how much we will keep up with the next mutations in these modifications.

Dr. Mark Kline, MD, New Orleans Children’s Hospital, points out an important point. Namely, that we expose children to COVID-19 infections not only by not vaccinating them, but also by not following the rules of the regime, including not wearing masks and not vaccinating ourselves.

So it is. Each unvaccinated person puts at risk not only himself but also others, including their loved ones. It especially puts those who cannot be vaccinated, including children under 12 years of age. Moreover, such a person puts to death people who, due to the next wave of infections and the reorganization of wards, have limited access to a doctor, treatment, surgery, etc. And so the lines are long, but we can get vaccinated at any time. I feel sorry for those who get vaccinated, pay premiums, and when they get sick, their access to treatment is difficult for the reasons I mentioned.

An issue that is certainly important for every parent whose child returns to school: how best to protect children from falling ill?

There is only one answer – first of all, vaccinate them against COVID-19. Because in fact the pandemic is manageable, but at this point we can only do it with vaccinations, because we do not have the drug yet and it is not expected that there will be any breakthrough in the near future.

And how to protect younger children who are not yet included in the vaccine?

These children should wear face masks. In fact, we should all remember them – this is not the moment when we can take them off. People should also be made aware that the role of masks is growing in relation to the more infectious Delta variant.

The infection can occur without close, direct contact with a sick person. Now it is enough to enter the room where the infected person previously stayed without the mask. Especially small, such as a narrow corridor or an elevator. There is only one conclusion: let’s wear masks all the time, and make sure that children also do it.

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3. COVID-19 symptoms – what are the most common symptoms now?

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