Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Assuming that you survive and do not have long COVID.

 

Who was not believining in an RSV wave. The CDC was sounding the warning last summer when the wave began and was perplexing since it was out of the normal cycle for RSV infections?

 

Interesting data on the Omicron wave in Asia:

 

Followed up by this data showing the extremely low number of people in Hong Kong who received a 3rd shot, especially in the older age groups:

 

Yeah…that is exactly what happens. Very few have severe illness with Covid. We know the high risk groups and there is a massive gradient in risk. Just stop with the fear mongering.

It is a real disease. No one disputes that. We have better ways to fight it and thankfully the newer variants appear to be more upper respiratory than lung focused which is likely why they have been less severe.

 

Median age for this study was 3 months. Know how many kids that young are eligible for a vaccine or wear a mask around the world? Zero. No vaccines for any kids under 5, and masks aren't recommended for any kid under 2. Potential choking hazard, since kids tend to put anything and everything in their mouths at that age. This study proves nothing about COVID for kids five and older. Median age is way too young.

Besides, the goal shouldn't be staying in the hospital for a shorter time. It should be avoiding hospitalization if possible. The vaccine in kids helps lower the risk of kids ending up in the hospital. The recent Omicron wave saw an increase in pediatric hospitalizations in two groups of kids. Those under 5 who are not eligible for vaccination. And unvaccinated kids. And in kids 5-11, vaccinated kids were half as likely to end up in the ICU versus unvaccinated.

Just because RSV, especially in infants, is a serious disease, doesn't mean COVID isn't.

 

Yeah, anyone under 50 has only has around a 99.98% or so. And healthy kids are zero.

 

You keep saying healthy kids have zero chance of dying from COVID. Yet, there are plenty of stories like this kid from Houston, or this one from Virginia dying from COVID while having no underlying conditions. Even as the vaccine efficacy has waned in kids with Omicron, it's still 48% effective from keeping kids out of the hospital. And still 91% effective from preventing MIS-C.

Just because a risk is low, does not make it zero. Your absolute statement is false. The vaccine reduces risks, even in kids.

 

High School students in Orange County must take an electrocardiogram test this year to play in sports.

Sports Physicals

 

Zero healthy kids have died from covid. Happy a lot of people didn't listen to the fear mongers. Myocarditis is much more dangerous to kids(especially boys).

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13759

"Cases of myo/pericarditis (n = 253) included 129 after dose 1 and 124 after dose 2; 86.9% were hospitalized. Incidence per million after dose two in male patients aged 12–15 and 16–17 was 162.2 and 93.0, respectively. Weighing post-vaccination myo/pericarditis against COVID-19 hospitalization during delta, our risk-benefit analysis suggests that among 12–17-year-olds, two-dose vaccination was uniformly favourable only in nonimmune girls with a comorbidity. In boys with prior infection and no comorbidities, even one dose carried more risk than benefit according to international estimates. In the setting of omicron, one dose may be protective in nonimmune children, but dose two does not appear to confer additional benefit at a population level."

 

Depending upon the age group...

 

Florida started this over a year ago, it was in the works pre COVID

 

I'm lost. It's a given that case fatality rate varies by age segment by disease. Is it required to caveat CFR (age, gender, moralities, race, etc) when mentioned? Or are there times when the simple, arithmetic mean is useful when discussing high level hypotheticals.

Maybe you're just trying to obfuscate.

 

Were those parents and doctors in the linked stories about their otherwise healthy kids dying from COVID lying?

As for risks, it is true that for kids 12-17, the risks of myocarditis is slightly higher from the vaccine than from COVID infection. The majority of myocarditis cases, however, require little more than rest and observation. MIS-C, on the other hand, is dangerous and often requires hospitalization. And again, in kids, the vaccine reduces the risk of MIS-C by 91%. Here's a good synopsis:

While VAM is a rare but real side effect of mRNA COVID vaccines across all ages, it is necessary to place these risks in the context of the risk from COVID infection itself. A study by Patone, et al., of the U.K. population concluded that the rate of COVID-associated myocarditis with 28 days of exposure was 30 cases per million for the general population, rising as high as 73 cases per million in males older than age 40.1 This suggests the rate of COVID-associated myocarditis alone matches or well exceeds the rate of VAM in most populations. The one exception is younger males. Particularly during the mid-teenage years, VAM risk appears to significantly exceed the rate of post-infection myocarditis of 7 cases per million.1 Nonetheless, when balanced against a small but measurable mortality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection (0.1-1 per 100,000 in young adults ages 12-291), as well as risk of hospitalization, the overall benefit of the vaccine outweighs the risk of contracting VAM. In an analysis by Gargano, et al., for every 39-47 cases of VAM in vaccinated men between the ages of 12 and 29 years, approximately 11,000 COVID-19 cases, 560 hospitalizations, 138 ICU admissions and 6 deaths could be prevented.9

Recent research has identified additional benefits to vaccination in preventing MIS-C. MIS-C occurs at a rate of 316 per 1 million cases of SARS-CoV-2, presenting within 2-6 weeks post infection.10 It can occur in COVID infection of any severity, including mild or asymptomatic. Over 30% of MIS-C cases occur between the ages of 12 and 20 years, and most of the balance in children between the ages of 5 and 11 years.11 According to the CDC, 61% of cases are male.11 MIS-C frequently results in an extended hospitalization with high percentages of patients requiring intensive care and advanced life support, a stark contrast to the generally mild course of most VAM. Zambrano, et al., recently demonstrated the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccination is 91% effective against MIS-C in children between the ages of 12 and 18 years and additionally protective against the most severe clinical courses of the syndrome.12 In their study, 95% of all children hospitalized with MIS-C were unvaccinated and no vaccinated child required life support. This finding was confirmed by additional research published in JAMA from a French population.13​

 

Love the rationalization of myocarditis by the fear monger. Just next level funny. This person will literally say anything to rationalize vaxxing everyone. Luckily most parents realized that once they tried to vax kids under 11.

 

Not trying to obfuscate at all.

I see lots of broad stroke statements by both sides here.
Fact is the mortality rate varies greatly based on age and risk factors, so making blanket statements seem a bit simplistic.

 

Love your rationalization and absolute statements, despite evidence to the contrary. The risk of myocarditis from getting the vaccine is about as low as the risk of death from getting COVID. Yet, we can ignore death, but worry about myocarditis, a condition that rarely needs serious medical intervention, and usually goes away on its own? Oh, and forget the risk of MIS-C! Why? Because vaccination clearly lowers the risk of MIS-C by over 90% in kids, which rips your argument to shreds. MIS-C almost always requires hospitalization and serious intervention.

Ignorance is never funny. Neither is misinformation. Not at any level. But if you're laughing, that's likely because ignorance is bliss.

 

And Florida doing the right thing again. It has baffled me that we have pushed a new drug on healthy kids that does not stop them from getting the disease that is not that dangerous to them anyways.

Florida says healthy kids shouldn’t get COVID vaccine, contradicting CDC (tampabay.com)

 

How anyone could look themselves in the mirror after being wrong for 2 straight years on almost everything covid related and now say "i know i'm right on this even though I was wrong on everything else" is next level ignorant.