The day before starting fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with Covid-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome.
It wasn’t supposed to be like that, thought her frightened mother, Yessica González. Francisco was usually healthy and disconcerting. At 9, he was too young to get vaccinated, but most of the family got his shots. He had heard that children seldom became ill with coronavirus.
But with the highly contagious delta variant spreading across the United States, children fill hospital intensive care beds instead of classrooms in record numbers, even more than at the height of the pandemic. Many are too young to get the vaccine, which is only available to those over 12 years of age.
The growing virus is spreading anxiety and causing turmoil and fights between parents, administrators and politicians in the United States, especially in states like Florida and Texas, where Republican governors have banned schools from making young people wear masks.
With millions of children returning to classrooms this month, experts say the stakes are unquestionably high.
Very high infection rates in the community “are causing our children’s hospitals to feel cramped,” said Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who helps research Moderna’s vaccine for children under 12 years. Creech said these shots will probably not be available for a few months.
“I’m really worried,” said Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a pediatrician and public health expert at the University of Florida. “It’s very disappointing to see copies of these numbers being made again.”
Although Covid-19 pediatric hospitalization rates are lower than for adults, they have increased in recent weeks, reaching 0.41 per 100,000 children aged 0 to 17 years, compared with 0.31 for 100,000, the previous maximum set in mid-January, according to a month of August. 13 report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, considers the rise in cases among children to be “very worrying.”
He noted that more than 400 U.S. children have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic began. “And right now we have almost 2,000 children in the hospital, many of them in the ICU, some of them under the age of 4,” Collins said Sunday on Fox News.
Health experts believe that adults who have failed to shoot are contributing to the rise for both adults and children. It has been especially bad in places with lower vaccination rates, such as parts of the south.
While it is clear that the delta variant is much more contagious than the original version, scientists are still unable to say for sure whether it makes people more seriously ill or whether young people are especially vulnerable to it.
As experts work to answer these questions, there are many hospitals shrinking. Those in Texas are among the hardest hit. On Tuesday they reported that 196 children were being treated with confirmed Covid-19. This compares with 163 during the previous peak, in December.
At Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the country’s largest pediatric hospital, the number of young people being treated for Covid-19 is the all-time high, Dr. Jim Versalovic, pediatrician in no time. In recent weeks, the vast majority have had delta infections and most patients 12 years of age or older have had no shots, he said.
“It’s spreading like wildfire through our communities,” he said.
Sometimes this month, his hospital system has diagnosed 200 children with Covid-19 a day, and about 6% of them needed hospital care. Some days, the number of children in the hospital with Covid-19 has exceeded 45.
Versalovic said he suspects children’s hospitalizations have increased simply because so many are infected, not because the delta variant makes people more serious.
At Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where Francisco is being treated, the number of patients with COVID-19 rose from 10 during the week of July 4 to 29 during the week of August 8.
Francisco is getting better and is expected to recover, but his mother is worried and is thinking about doing it at home. The virus “is really dangerous,” he said.
The increase in the delta is another test for the country’s schools, which deal with students who have been left behind academically as a result of remote learning or have developed mental health problems due to the disorder.
Outbreaks have already occurred in reopened schools in the south that are facing resistance to the use of masks.
In Texas, some school administrators are required to issue masks to challenge the governor and the state Supreme Court. Among them is Michael Hinojosa, of the Dallas school system, one of the largest districts in the state.
“This delta variant is different and the numbers are really significant in the county,” he said. “We will continue our mask mandate to protect students, to protect parents, to protect families and, most importantly, our teachers, who are on these front lines.”
Although dozens of students and staff have been sick with the virus since the 180 schools in the Dallas district began opening on Aug. 5, the numbers are much lower than when face-to-face learning resumed at the spring, said Hinojosa.
Knowing the weight of the pandemic on children, Hinojosa is determined to keep their schools open.
“We know they’ve been healed,” he said. “That’s why they have to come back with their friends and teachers.”
In DeSoto, a Dallas suburb, schools also require masks, and Superintendent D’Andre Weaver said there has been no setback from parents, perhaps, he added, because many are black and know their community was tough. affected before the pandemic. Some considered keeping their children at home because of the governor’s opposition to school mask requirements, Weaver said.
As a parent and administrator, Weaver said rising the delta “is a major concern, it’s a major frustration. It’s a big fear. ”
Her two girls started first and second grade this week, and the first thing she’s been asking when she picks them up after school is “How are you feeling? Do you have a sore throat? “I know many parents are on the same boat,” Weaver said.
While he knows many children suffered during e-learning last year, Weaver said, “We have no choice but to prepare it as an option.”
It wasn’t supposed to be like that, thought her frightened mother, Yessica González. Francisco was usually healthy and disconcerting. At 9, he was too young to get vaccinated, but most of the family got his shots. He had heard that children seldom became ill with coronavirus.
But with the highly contagious delta variant spreading across the United States, children fill hospital intensive care beds instead of classrooms in record numbers, even more than at the height of the pandemic. Many are too young to get the vaccine, which is only available to those over 12 years of age.
The growing virus is spreading anxiety and causing turmoil and fights between parents, administrators and politicians in the United States, especially in states like Florida and Texas, where Republican governors have banned schools from making young people wear masks.
With millions of children returning to classrooms this month, experts say the stakes are unquestionably high.
Very high infection rates in the community “are causing our children’s hospitals to feel cramped,” said Dr. Buddy Creech, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University who helps research Moderna’s vaccine for children under 12 years. Creech said these shots will probably not be available for a few months.
“I’m really worried,” said Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a pediatrician and public health expert at the University of Florida. “It’s very disappointing to see copies of these numbers being made again.”
Although Covid-19 pediatric hospitalization rates are lower than for adults, they have increased in recent weeks, reaching 0.41 per 100,000 children aged 0 to 17 years, compared with 0.31 for 100,000, the previous maximum set in mid-January, according to a month of August. 13 report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, considers the rise in cases among children to be “very worrying.”
He noted that more than 400 U.S. children have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic began. “And right now we have almost 2,000 children in the hospital, many of them in the ICU, some of them under the age of 4,” Collins said Sunday on Fox News.
Health experts believe that adults who have failed to shoot are contributing to the rise for both adults and children. It has been especially bad in places with lower vaccination rates, such as parts of the south.
While it is clear that the delta variant is much more contagious than the original version, scientists are still unable to say for sure whether it makes people more seriously ill or whether young people are especially vulnerable to it.
As experts work to answer these questions, there are many hospitals shrinking. Those in Texas are among the hardest hit. On Tuesday they reported that 196 children were being treated with confirmed Covid-19. This compares with 163 during the previous peak, in December.
At Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, the country’s largest pediatric hospital, the number of young people being treated for Covid-19 is the all-time high, Dr. Jim Versalovic, pediatrician in no time. In recent weeks, the vast majority have had delta infections and most patients 12 years of age or older have had no shots, he said.
“It’s spreading like wildfire through our communities,” he said.
Sometimes this month, his hospital system has diagnosed 200 children with Covid-19 a day, and about 6% of them needed hospital care. Some days, the number of children in the hospital with Covid-19 has exceeded 45.
Versalovic said he suspects children’s hospitalizations have increased simply because so many are infected, not because the delta variant makes people more serious.
At Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where Francisco is being treated, the number of patients with COVID-19 rose from 10 during the week of July 4 to 29 during the week of August 8.
Francisco is getting better and is expected to recover, but his mother is worried and is thinking about doing it at home. The virus “is really dangerous,” he said.
The increase in the delta is another test for the country’s schools, which deal with students who have been left behind academically as a result of remote learning or have developed mental health problems due to the disorder.
Outbreaks have already occurred in reopened schools in the south that are facing resistance to the use of masks.
In Texas, some school administrators are required to issue masks to challenge the governor and the state Supreme Court. Among them is Michael Hinojosa, of the Dallas school system, one of the largest districts in the state.
“This delta variant is different and the numbers are really significant in the county,” he said. “We will continue our mask mandate to protect students, to protect parents, to protect families and, most importantly, our teachers, who are on these front lines.”
Although dozens of students and staff have been sick with the virus since the 180 schools in the Dallas district began opening on Aug. 5, the numbers are much lower than when face-to-face learning resumed at the spring, said Hinojosa.
Knowing the weight of the pandemic on children, Hinojosa is determined to keep their schools open.
“We know they’ve been healed,” he said. “That’s why they have to come back with their friends and teachers.”
In DeSoto, a Dallas suburb, schools also require masks, and Superintendent D’Andre Weaver said there has been no setback from parents, perhaps, he added, because many are black and know their community was tough. affected before the pandemic. Some considered keeping their children at home because of the governor’s opposition to school mask requirements, Weaver said.
As a parent and administrator, Weaver said rising the delta “is a major concern, it’s a major frustration. It’s a big fear. ”
Her two girls started first and second grade this week, and the first thing she’s been asking when she picks them up after school is “How are you feeling? Do you have a sore throat? “I know many parents are on the same boat,” Weaver said.
While he knows many children suffered during e-learning last year, Weaver said, “We have no choice but to prepare it as an option.”