In California, there is low vaccination in children aged 5 to 11 years, as only 26 percent have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, while only 33 percent have received one dose.
The low level of vaccination in children between 5 and 11 years of age has allowed the disease to spread among children under these ages, and deaths in this sector of the population have also increased.
This was made known by East Bay pediatrician Jennifer Miller during a media session hosted by Ethnic Media ServicesHe pointed out that, although it is true that this population group does not contract the virus as severely as adults, it is making them sick, putting some of them in the hospital, and sadly killing others.
He said that complications of the disease have been observed in the group of children between 5 and 11 years of age, such is the case of Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome, a situation in which, as its name suggests, it causes inflammation in vital organs such as the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain, among others.
He added that, although these cases are rare, they impact, above all, communities of color, precisely where there is a high incidence of obesity and chronic diseases.
"We see that children are missing school, they're missing their sports activities, they're not being able to participate in all the things they love, and in communities of color, where often families live day-to-day, the caregivers of these families have to stop working to stay home and take care of their children, sometimes for five or ten days, and many of these families are not equipped to deal with this," he said.
In addition, they live in larger groups, which leads to a greater spread of the disease.
He added that children between 5 and 11 years of age suffer from the disease for a prolonged period of time, because although the full extent of COVID is not known, it has been observed that children suffer from confusion for long periods, shortness of breath, fatigue and malaise.
As if all this were not enough, mental health is also affected, as anxiety and depression are also present in this population group.
"I see children who are worried that they are going to get sick, that their parents might catch it. Now we tell them they don't have to wear masks as often in school. They are afraid of that. Knowing if they take them off and they might get sick. So there is a lot more anxiety in the communities, even in elementary school," she explained.
So why aren't parents vaccinating their children, Dr. Miller reflected, noting that the main reason for the low vaccination rate in children aged 5 to 11 years is fear.
"They are afraid of what might happen to their children. It seems to me that parents are more willing to get vaccinated. Sometimes they have to do it because of their job or because they've seen other people get sick and have complications. So there are more adults willing to get vaccinated, but when it comes to doing it for their children, they find they are unable," he said.
In her practice, the doctor has heard parents say that they have done their own research and come to the conclusion that vaccination in children can cause long-term illness and even death, which is totally wrong.
"The vaccine is safe. It has been rigorously tested. By the time this pandemic is over, we're going to see that this is going to be the most studied vaccine in history," he said.
At the time, Dr. Sohil Sud, Program Leader of the California Department of Public Health's Safe Schools for All Program, said that the downward trends in COVID-19 positivity are actually very favorable.
In this sense, he pointed out that the state has gone from having one in four positive tests to one in 100, which has translated into 7.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, daily.
He said that California has moved forward with a series of policy updates in schools, and emphasized that as of this week it has begun the transition away from mandatory facemasks in schools, however, it is still highly recommended in K12 school settings.
"This means that we are still asking students and staff to continue to wear masks, as we stated for the general public a few weeks ago, but the state no longer requires them to be mandatory. However, if any local Health Department or School District chooses to maintain a masking requirement, we affirm and support the right to do so."
In addition, he said, it has been strongly recommended that schools follow a notification-based model for managing students exposed to COVID-19, rather than a quarantine-based model.
"We call this 'cluster tracking,' and I know it's not new. We first published this approach at the beginning of the school semester in January, but what is new is a really strong recommendation, which favors this approach and essentially implies that if someone in the class has COVID, that someone should be isolated, they should go home and they should stay away from others as described in the broader guidance, but for the others, in that class exposed to that individual, they can and should stay in school. They should be notified and wear a mask, get tested a few days later and be on high alert for symptoms, but they can stay on campus."
The reason is that the Omicron variant has shorter incubation periods with broader transmission. "We need to rely on approaches that fit that and this approach of immediate notification, rapid testing and isolation fits better than trying to identify and potentially quarantine those within a specific 6-foot radius."
Third, he detailed that the state of California will continue to strongly support school communities, so "the change in masking guidance does not accompany any rollback of resources and, if anything, allows us to really focus on long-term strategies and prevention."
On the other hand, he pondered that the main strategy of the state to mitigate the low vaccination rate in children from 5 to 11 years old, is the vaccination of all eligible students, so he called on all those schools that want to host a vaccine clinic, to contact the agency to resolve all the details and achieve it.
Dr. Beth Jarosz, associate director of KidsData, reminded that although Public Health restrictions are easing, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is still circulating: children are acquiring COVID-19 and are at risk for multisystem inflammatory disease, so vaccination in children is paramount.
"When we look at the number of new cases per year, there have been more cases of children with COVID in the first two and a half months of 2022 than there were all of them in 2021. And if we look at the deaf data, we see a disturbing pattern, even though children are less likely than adults to die of COVID, 30 percent of childhood cases end in death."
Therefore, he clarified, "even if that pace slows, 2022 could well be the worst year of the pandemic for children."
To guarantee a decrease in these death rates, he assured that the only way is to increase vaccination rates in children.
In this regard, he explained that counties such as Marin, Alameda and Imperial have been a success story in terms of vaccinating children against COVID-19, as they have achieved a greater number of immunized infants, thanks, in large part, to the partnership with trusted people in the community, such as pediatricians.
However, another piece of information he released speaks to the importance of addressing child and adolescent mental health two years into the pandemic.
And, he stressed, the number of suicides increased dramatically for those aged 10 to 14 years in 2020.
In that regard, Dr. Veronica Kelley, Chief of Recovery and Mental Health Services at the Orange County Health Care Center, said that children ages 5 to 11 have experienced an increase in isolation in the past two years due to the way they have changed their school attendance.
"They're sitting at a kitchen table in a Zoom and they're not surrounded with their friends. They interact with their friends and other adults differently. We have changed the way our children access healthcare because we have not been able to take them to the doctor and that may have led them to have symptoms of depression and anxiety.
He added that nationally, according to the American Psychological Association, there was a 24 percent increase during 2020 for emergency department visits for children ages 5 to 11 for a mental health crisis.
Meanwhile, in 2021, pediatric hospitals reported a 14 percent increase in mental health emergencies, and a 42 percent increase in self-harm, which includes suicide attempts.
"Our children have experienced many losses, including missing the first day of school, changes in their group of friends, missing graduation, even if that graduation was from kindergarten, missing participation in sports and other ceremonies such as quinceañeras and baptisms, and even the loss of a parent or caregiver to COVID: some 167,000 children have lost a parent to COVID."
In addition, he abounded, children have experienced a loss of innocence with a national reckoning over social injustice in communities of color and the rise of hate crimes in Asian and Pacific Islander communities, as well as an increase in violence and polarization.
Therefore, "our children have had to grow up quickly, and this has resulted in something, we call sustained survival mode. What that means is that when we were cooped up, we didn't have a lot of activities to do, we didn't have a lot of healthy things to eat, and those continued unhealthy behaviors have led to a decrease in our mental health, decrease in physical activity, sleep disruption, weight gain, and parental concern for their children."
Thus, he explained that two-thirds of parents surveyed by the American Psychological Association reported concern about the impact of the pandemic on their children's cognitive development, while 57 percent reported that any of them benefited from mental health treatment during the pandemic.
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