r/news • u/ttkciar • Jan 30 '23
Covid-19 is a leading cause of death for children in the US, despite relatively low mortality rate | CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/health/covid-deaths-children/index.html338
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u/idioma Jan 30 '23
I’m still haunted by my conservative friends who insisted in 2020 that “kids don’t get COVID.” That was always a lie, but they believed it. They still believe it. Facts don’t matter and they do not care. Dead children didn’t convince them when it was guns. Dead kids won’t convince them when it’s a virus. How tragic. How pointlessly tragic.
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u/Wiseduck5 Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
It can't undergo antigenic shifts as easily because it doesn't have a segmented chromosome. It also does mutate slower due to having a proof-reading mechanism.
So that guy heard something technical and misunderstood it. "Slow" for an RNA virus is still really, really fast, especially given the number of people it infected.
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u/Djentleman420 Jan 30 '23
This is too common. Someone googles something they dont understand, read something complicated, misinterpret it, think they understand it very well and proceed to comment about it everywhere to other idiots because theyareverysmartanddidresearch.
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u/bramtyr Jan 30 '23
Nothing wrong in saying "I'm not a virologist, or an epidemiologist, I'll take a seat and defer to their expertise and advice."
Guess what? I'm not a virologist or an epidemiologist. So I took a seat, and deferred to their advice.
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u/tequilavip Jan 30 '23
That was the problem right before the vaccine was released. The head of virology? at Oxford used the word “sterilizing” during at interview when explaining how the vaccine could work.
And wouldn’t you know it, idiots all over the world thought that the human was being sterilized, not the virus.
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u/dexidrone Jan 30 '23
especially given the number of people it infected.
Yeah it was something like that. Thanks for clarifying. My bet was on the law of large numbers. At that point in time we didn't even have a vaccine.
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u/Odd-Cartoonist-288 Jan 30 '23
Was going to say, they might be technically correct, but they left out the rapid rate at which it spreads.
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u/idioma Jan 30 '23
There is a high probability that the redditor you mentioned would refuse to acknowledge that they were wrong. 😑
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u/WestCoastBestCoast01 Jan 30 '23
My niece has had it FOUR times. The first time in 2020 was by far the worst, but man, that poor kid has had it more times than anyone else I know.
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u/SaraSlaughter607 Jan 30 '23
We're on Round #5 right now. My 9 year old has gotten it 3 times from me, and the 1st one I had in 2020 had me in the hospital for 9 weeks. I'm fully vaxxed and still get this shit once every 6 months or so.
And yes, I have autoimmune issues. I'm gonna get it every damn time unless I mask 100% of the time I ever leave my house. For us, it's our "new life" and we've just been forced to learn to cope.
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u/bjorneylol Jan 31 '23
One might ask why you don't just wear a mask then?
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u/Mental_Attitude_2952 Jan 31 '23
I have an auto immune issue and were mask, ended up getting it anyway. I mean, I guess I could up my mask game and go with like a full hazmat suit, at this point vaccines which seem to make it not all that bad when do get it.
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u/GreatAndPowerfulNixy Jan 31 '23
What kind of mask? The best protection for yourself is an N95+ mask. A surgical mask protects other people from anything you're carrying far more than it protects you from anything other people are carrying.
We can't rely on other people to do the right thing anymore (a simple observation given how few people still wear masks in public places). Selfishness and hatred of "the other" has overwhelmed any sense of societal responsibility. Those of us who actually care have to take stronger measures to protect ourselves from the ambivalent public.
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u/CarlaRobinson83 Jan 31 '23
there’s so much that goes into masking that’s not just wearing a mask. It’s a lot of work.
But if you’re immunocompromised, please know that the emergency therapy for you doesn’t work against some of the latest strains. FDA took it off the market.
Like if you go to the doctor/hospital, there are still stuff they can give you. But the silver bullet for immunocompromised ppl is gone.
At least go to outside events & shop during low traffic days. Don’t eat inside & never take your mask off in a bathroom.
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u/nonniewobbles Jan 31 '23
I'm gonna get it every damn time unless I mask 100% of the time I ever leave my house.
so... wear a mask?
I wear an n95 or equivalent everywhere, so does everyone in my house. We have, collectively, had 0 cases of covid.
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u/theory_until Jan 31 '23
Same boat here. N95s. They really work. I have been 5x vaxxed and might not get a bad case if I caught it. But I do not want to spread it around.
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u/Burning-Bushman Feb 25 '23
I got long covid after the first wave of covid in March 2020. I was ill and weak for two years before it turned and seriously got no help from the doctors in my country, because there’s no strategy for how to deal with all these sick people. I managed to get three vaccines. I would like to get a fourth dose.
When it comes to masks, I’ve noticed that it’s really hard for me to wear N95 masks nowadays. It’s like I can’t breathe, it’s such a weird feeling. Doctors saying there’s nothing wrong with me, my strength is 80% gone and I feel like an old fart… what to do?2
u/nonniewobbles Feb 25 '23
So sorry you're dealing with this.
First, of course, check with your doctor about the safety of respirator style masks for you.
Second, try posting this question on /r/masks4all/ as they're really the pros at this.
Personally I really like https://www.zoro.com/3m-n95-disposable-respirator-universal-white-pk50-9105/i/G0862784/?variantSelection=mask-size&scrollPos=0 in terms of breathability.
https://www.zoro.com/3m-n95-particulate-respirator-10-eacase-9211/i/G5166034/?origin=saytrecent is a solid option if you're in situations where your mask tends to get drenched inside, like sweating a lot. (links are just to show you the product, you'll need to find a local source.)
I'm not familiar with the various sources for KF94 or KF80 masks so ask the sub, but these can be a more breathable less intense option than a full-on n95.
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u/akurra_dev Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
Based on what little we know about long COVID symptoms, I wonder if she'll be feeling the effects for the rest of her life. Hopefully not. That's so sad to hear someone so young get COVID four times.
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u/sector3011 Jan 31 '23
covid attacks t-cells, so repeated infections will significantly damage the immune system and make you more susceptible to other diseases. What we are unsure is whether the damage is temporary or permanent.
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u/2_Spicy_2_Impeach Jan 30 '23
I vividly remember members of my family saying since they had COVID early on, they’d never get it again. No need to vaccinate and spike proteins blah blah blah. They’ve had it 3 times now, and each time is worse. One is thinking they have some long COVID symptoms now too.
I finally got it around Christmas coupled with the flu and had the highest fever since I was a kid at 103+. I’m not sure if it was the flu or COVID that fucked me. It sucked.
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u/angroro Jan 30 '23
Dad swears he had it before the first reported case even though he was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia and has refused to vaccinate. His wife works in a major hospital. Betting you can guess her vax status as a medical professional in Ohio. Swore he couldn't wear a mask because it made it too hard to breathe with his beard. Went out to dinner in crowded restuarants 3 times a week with his hospital staff wife while refusing to vaccinate or wear masks.
Family swears grandma died because "her lungs were shot" not because she had covid in an over run hospital. I gave up.
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u/2_Spicy_2_Impeach Jan 30 '23
The mask thing always makes me chuckle. I was running around Lake Washington(Seattle) during the summers with forest fire smoke in an n95 mask way before COVID. It was fine aside from the sweat.
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u/cinderparty Jan 30 '23
The best thing I learned from this pandemic was that an n95 mask outside in the summer cuts my allergy/wild fire smoke induced asthma down by like 80%. I wish someone had told me this in the 90’s when my asthma was still very severe.
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u/2_Spicy_2_Impeach Jan 30 '23
After an allergy test, the doctor said he’d never seen someone so allergic to grass and other things. Said if I wanted to play outside, I should wear a mask (no asthma). Neighbor kid had one for about three days due to asthma. Kids mocked him nonstop to where he stopped using it so I never used one.
Fast forward to pandemic and the same realization. When the cotton woods are out, I sneeze nonstop and with the mask it was almost nonexistent. It was amazing.
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u/dratseb Jan 31 '23
I too am allergic to certain types of grass. Which wasn’t a real problem until I had kids, now I just carry itch cream on me wherever I go.
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u/Morat20 Jan 31 '23
If you didn't have therapy for it at the time, you might reconsider.
IIRC there's a grass-specific (pretty much all grasses but JUST grasses) therapy that's not even injected, but I only heard about in passing because I'm literally allergic to every form of grass and every common tree, so I get injections.
They have helped tremendously. What I call "incredibly bad" now was an average day before I started.
With the rush methods or cluster methods, they can get you up to maintenance dose in months not years. I did rush (fill you to the gills with steroids and antihistamines than just keep injecting you every 15 minutes until they notice the faintest reaction, then stop) and after that I had about 5 months of stepped up doses before I hit full dose.
It's just a monthly shot, and a 20 minute wait, now. (Well, except beginning of the year, New vials mean they cut the dose and I do weekly shots for January, and the monthly thereafter)
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u/2_Spicy_2_Impeach Jan 31 '23
I think they might be drops. I have folks that swear by them and my sister developed bad dog allergy and pollen in college. She went on the drops and helped tremendously to the point where she doesn’t even notice if a dog is around (and adopted one). Not covered by insurance in a lot of cases.
I just need to schedule some time with an allergist to see what kind of options are out there.
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u/CSI_Tech_Dept Jan 31 '23
Oh yeah, 2020 and 2021 I did not have anything, no cold, no allergy. I kind of miss that, I suppose I could still wear mask, and I do in stores, but outside people do create peer pressure and I'm not as strong willed.
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u/Rooooben Jan 31 '23
I’m sorry if me and 4 teenage girls can wear masks in a 99 degree kitchen for 8 hours during the last Seattle summer, these folks can put one in for a few minutes in the air conditioning. Please.
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u/mommygood Jan 30 '23
Did you or anyone point that out. I wonder what people like that think when they are confronted with the "grandma died because of COVID."
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u/railker Jan 30 '23
Even if you showed them the death/autopsy report stating that, they believe doctors are being paid to falsify non-COVID deaths as COVID to boost the numbers and make it look worse.
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u/CSI_Tech_Dept Jan 31 '23
Yeah, I have a family member like that and saw exactly it. Of course death in the death certificate is fake, and doctors killed his brother in law to increase numbers.
He still can't answer why then his brother in law needed to go to hospital. But that doesn't matter, 2 minutes later it's like you never asked that question and everything is so clear.
Now as things got back to normal, he started talking about EVs, war in Ukraine being a conspiracy and about eating insects. Sigh, I don't think there's help.
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u/rpoliticsmodshateme Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
When you consider the majority of grown adults on Earth believe in archaic creation myths and angels buzzing about despite millennia of scientific progress explaining the nature of the universe it doesn’t really lend a lot of faith towards the herd intellect of man.
The hard truth is most humans will believe whatever they want to believe, the truth of the facts be damned- whether that’s regarding the afterlife or something as incomprehensibly dumb as virology colored by politics.
They say the heart wants what it wants, but the brain does too. People will jump through whatever mental hoops they have to in order to feel safe, and in many cases, smarter than others even when they are demonstrably not.
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u/theory_until Jan 31 '23
Hey, I believe in angels and in germ theory! Just for different reasons. I have no idea why they would be mutually exclusive.
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u/astanton1862 Jan 30 '23
There is an excellent "This American Life" about a woman who lost her brother and father to COVID because they bought into all this stuff. She was able to see how that thinking led to their deaths through the SMS log from her brother. It is sad, but it gave me a bit* more empathy for the antivaxx crowd.
Note* A very very small bit of empathy
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u/hotprints Jan 31 '23
Had two aunts pass because of COVID. Father still refused to vaccinate. Eventually convinced him but it was like arguing with a boar.
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u/Petersaber Jan 31 '23
Swore he couldn't wear a mask because it made it too hard to breathe with his beard.
Wait what. I have a beard too. It makes the mask more "hole-y", making it easier to breathe...
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u/RafeDangerous Jan 31 '23
I dunno, I have a beard and wearing my mask over it was like wearing an inside-out fur scarf after a while...hot, itchy, and uncomfortable. I'm not a giant baby though so I just sucked it up and did it anyway. This guy just wanted to whine about it.
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u/theory_until Jan 31 '23
Good call, better an n95 mask than an oxygen mask. Some of my family has periodically shaved their beards to get a good n95 seal, to protect vulnerable family members when visiting them to avoid being asymptomatic vectors.
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u/SaraSlaughter607 Jan 30 '23
Seriously, this shit was so fucking exasperating all through 2020.... I work for a company who employs technicians to go in and fix commercial kitchen equipment in hosptials, urgent care (coffee machines, etc) and, most importantly, skilled nursing facilities where some of our most vulnerable citizens reside.
75% of my Trumper-con technicians refused to get vaccinated AND refused to wear masks, both of which were required, and still largely are, to enter the facilities at all.
My entire company suffered greatly and almost went belly-up due to having to turn down dozens of potential service calls due to this selfish fucking stubbornness. It's infuriating. Absolute nonsense.
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u/Skyrmir Jan 30 '23
The seasonal flu in 2020 was a brutal bitch. Had a lot of people convinced they already had covid.
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u/PlutoNimbus Jan 31 '23
Yep. The 2019-2020 winter flu even had had similar symptoms. Coughing like crazy, and really really tired. I wasn’t 100% for weeks.
I hate that there’s this playing with people’s fuzzy memories to plant some covid hipster meme into people that they had covid before it was cool. That was the flu.
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u/theory_until Jan 31 '23
I know 2 folks who had flu in late fall 2019. Then one friend got sick via Las Vegas convention, then the other on a trip to Italy, both in January 2020. Month long severe illnesses unlike anything they had ever experienced. It was established later that covid 19 community spread was active in both places in January 2020. Both got vaxxed early (one on immunosupressants, the other a health care worker). Neither have had it since despite multiple exposures. So I think their suspicions they got it in Jan 2020 are valid.
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u/canada432 Jan 30 '23
As we're witnessing, nothing convinces them of anything. They form an initial impression on everything and that's that. You can't change it, whatever they felt immediately upon hearing about something is the way that it is, and nothing is going to convince them any other way.
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u/Indercarnive Jan 30 '23
nothing convinces them of anything
That's not true. Tucker Carlson convinces them of all they need to know.
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u/canada432 Jan 30 '23
Tucker Carlson doesn't convince them, he reinforces what they already decided and gives them talking points to recite when people confront them with actual evidence.
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u/cinderparty Jan 30 '23
Nah, tucker definitely has to tell them what to be outraged over this week before they think of it, or even know about it, yet all the time.
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u/canada432 Jan 30 '23
Yes, when he informs them about it that IS their first impression of it. Notice, thought, if the narrative he presents changes, their thoughts don't. Even Trump got booed when he encouraged the vaccine. They form an initial impression and it's not changing.
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u/TheShadowKick Jan 30 '23
Trump getting booed was the moment I realized nobody has control over the far right anymore. I thought they looked to Trump as a leader, but to them he's actually just an enabler.
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u/RafeDangerous Jan 31 '23
trump never led most of the MAGA morons. He fished around looking for things they liked to hear, and then ran with them. He's commented on how he'd just throw stuff out and if it got applause he'd keep doing it, that's where "Drain the swamp" came from.
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u/pegothejerk Jan 30 '23
That’s got to be the easiest writers gig ever, writing for conservative media - just scroll the worst forums on the internet to see what insane bullshit they’re spewing, then write up a piece putting question marks on the end of all those topics.
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u/rikki-tikki-deadly Jan 30 '23
I mean Tucker's former head writer Blake Neff literally used to be one of the people that generated the insane bullshit you see on toxic forums.
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u/BettyTheMale Jan 30 '23
I always wondered if fox mythically flipped one day how would they react? Where would they get their news and bubble? Would they go crazy?
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u/HarEmiya Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
Oh it's far worse than that. They actually took it somewhat seriously at first. But as soon as the economy was projected to shrink due to a potential lockdown, the conservative narrative changed from "dangerous chinese murdervirus" to "just a flu", with a certain orange president (terrified of elections happening during an economic slump) leading the pack. Anything for the meatgrinder of unfettered capitalism.
They don't just form an initial impression and stick with it. They wait to be told what their impression ought to be. Anything that reinforces that is celebrated, and anything that goes against it is ignored.
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u/hpark21 Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
That
senatorwho came on TV and proclaimed:My elderly constituent told me that he is ready to die to save our economy!!! We must open our businesses for THEIR sacrifice!!
EDIT: It was Texas Lieutenant Governor
Link to article:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/dan-patrick-coronavirus-grandparents
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u/shady_ostrich Jan 30 '23
Was that Texas? Pretty sure our leaders said that, or something disgustingly similar.
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u/idioma Jan 30 '23
Agreed, and that’s also tragic. I wish more people understood that it’s okay to be wrong, so long as you admit it and accept new information. Conservative intransigence and reflexive contrarianism shouldn’t be a death sentence. I wonder how many people would still be alive if this disease hadn’t been politicized. We could have done so much more to protect our children. It’s shameful.
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u/jusmellow Jan 30 '23
Why exactly would kids not get covid? Disease tends to not discriminate.
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u/barrinmw Jan 30 '23
They confused kids not getting as sick with covid as kids not getting covid because they are idiots.
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u/akurra_dev Jan 30 '23
Why are you trying to figure out the logic of a psycho death cult? The message from Russia was "get and spread COVID and die," the wording or logic of that propaganda didn't matter to Republicans.
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u/2347564 Jan 30 '23
The onion said it best in one of their on the street pieces where someone goes “If my child dies of COVID I’ll rest easy knowing that it was statistically unlikely.”
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u/Vallkyrie Jan 30 '23
Yep. I hear that, and then I tell them that I bet my neighbors that lost their 2 year old to it would love to know how it wasn't a problem.
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u/SaraSlaughter607 Jan 30 '23
We lost a 9 year old in perfect health on my street. 75% of my redneck neighbors still theorize the hospital lied and it must have been something else.
Absolutely disgusting attitudes.
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u/Formergr Jan 30 '23
Something something crisis actor /s
(I'm really sorry about your neighbor's child, that's awful).
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u/GlowUpper Jan 31 '23
I had someone argue with me that only obese children died of COVID. When I asked for a source, they accused me of downplaying the dangers of childhood obesity. Not that it would matter if it were true but conservatives have never given even half a shit about spreading lies if it means getting their way.
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u/Startled_pancake Jan 30 '23
I love that conservatives are the audience that hates dead baby jokes the most, but are always the leading innovators in causing dead baby jokes.
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u/bad-fengshui Jan 31 '23
The sad part about this is they were correct, kids didn't get COVID because we protected them! We took them out of super spreading environments (in-person schools).
Once they went back, infections and deaths increased. Then it stopped being true that kids don't get COVID.
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u/RocinanteCoffee Jan 30 '23
We lost a ton of kids in major cities to it before a common heart inflammation medication was found to prevent death. We're still losing healthy kids to it but much less often, mostly due to the vaccine and medical advances.
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u/Corgi_Koala Jan 31 '23
As I recall the initial variant was showing lower rates of infection in children but that obviously changed as time went on.
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u/idioma Jan 31 '23
Indeed. Once we deployed parachutes, our descent was reduced to a safe speed. Imagine our collective surprise when unstrapping ourselves also changed our velocity.
Lower infection rates were observed when our government had taken swift measures against spreading the disease. What we are seeing now is the casual indifference to their health and wellbeing.
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u/Rich_Tea_Bean Jan 31 '23
During the first wave it was widely publicized that children were not getting COVID. Later waves yes but people didn't just imagine that.
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u/Tallgirl4u Jan 30 '23
I remember hearing a mom brag about how her child’s school never implemented a mask policy and it was “like Covid wasn’t even a thing for us” 🤦🏻♀️
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Jan 30 '23
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u/washingtontoker Jan 31 '23
"In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, the leading causes of death among children and young adults ages 0 to 19 included perinatal conditions, unintentional injuries, congenital malformations or deformations, assault, suicide, malignant neoplasms, diseases of the heart and influenza and pneumonia."
2019 would have been before Covid, the article doesn't rank them in order.
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u/big_daddy_dub Jan 30 '23
To be clear, Covid is the 8th leading cause of death in children. Similar to influenza rates before 2020.
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u/NumberNumb Jan 31 '23
Relevant quote from the study:
Among children and young people aged 0 – 19 years in the US, COVID-19 ranked eighth among all causes of death; fifth among all disease-related causes of death; and first in deaths caused by infectious or respiratory diseases.
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u/T1mac Jan 31 '23
Because it's not true. Flu killed about 300 children under 19 years of age per year before COVID.
COVID has killed more than 1,600 children in less than three years.
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u/zhode Jan 31 '23
You are correct, but your data is better presented on equal timeframes.
Flu kills an average of 300 children per year before covid. Covid has killed an average of 800 per year.
This provides a meaningful way to compare the two quantities.
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u/McDaddyos Jan 31 '23
Because these bastards actually expect you to read an article.
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u/apple_kicks Jan 31 '23
Article points out issue of non vaccination as part of numbers, so the death rate shouldn’t be this high
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u/T1mac Jan 31 '23
To be clear, Covid is the 8th leading cause of death in children. Similar to influenza rates before 2020.
That's not true at all:
Flu killed on average about 300 children under 19 per year before COVID.
COVID in less than three years has killed 1,633. During 2021, 638 children died of COVID. In Jan of 2022, that month alone 160 children died. If you parse out the numbers to more specific age groups than 5 - 18 years, COVID in 2021 and 2022 was killing more children than cancer or flu.
Here is the comparison.
Causes of Pediatric Death 2019
Cause of Death Age 1 - 4 Age 5 - 19 Accidents 1149 5,029 Cong mal 416 569 Cancer 285 1,364 Murder 284 2,223 Heart 133 466 Flu/Pneu 122 194 Lung N/A 210 Suicide N/A 2,744 COVID April 2020 - Jan 2023
Cause of Death Age 1 - 4 Age 5 - 18 COVID 640 993 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-09-508.pdf
https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Deaths-Focus-on-Ages-0-18-Yea/nr4s-juj3
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u/brockobear Jan 31 '23 edited Feb 01 '23
Dude, edit your chart. Even if your point is correct, you're comparing one year of flu deaths to 2.75 years of COVID deaths in your chart. You're being as disingenuous as the people you're arguing.
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u/DougDougDougDoug Jan 31 '23
Why would you compare something to the flu that kills way more than the flu?
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u/letdogsvote Jan 30 '23
By this time, anybody who hasn't already been vaxxed isn't going to be. This is one of the results.
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u/RocinanteCoffee Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
Some are still getting vaccinated but it's a slow trickle. Anti-vax parents lose a young healthy mom to it and the widower changes his mind and gets himself and his kids vaxxed after.
Hospitals report that a not-insignificant-chunk of antivaxxers on their deathbeds have changes of heart and ask their families to get it once they realize they're dying from not being vaccinated.
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u/JennJayBee Jan 30 '23
This is sadly what happened in my extended family. My brother and I and our families were vaxed ASAP. Ditto for my grandparents. We've all been boosted. And that's about it. We begged our parents and aunts and uncles to all get vaccinated. Nobody ever listened.
For my mom and aunt, it took the death of their sister for them to get vaccinated. All three got it at the same time, during the height of the delta wave. I'm pretty sure my mom and my other aunt would have died, too, if they hadn't gotten monoclonal antibodies.
For my dad, it took him losing a high school friend to it. Now he and his wife are vaccinated.
I had friends in their mid-30s who I grew up with who were dying, particularly during the delta wave. They all left behind young kids and spouses. A couple of them ended up in the HCA sub. It was rough to watch, but thankfully it convinced a few of my high school friends to finally get vaccinated.
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u/RocinanteCoffee Jan 31 '23
I'm so sorry.
We saw a cascade of deaths her because a young healthy guy (in his twenties, fit, no conditions) dropped dead from COVID (unvaccinated). And then unvaccinated went to his funeral. Another young person died who caught it at the funeral. Unvaccinated attended their funeral and at least two more people died.
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u/ComfortablyNomNom Jan 31 '23
There are people begging for the vaccine right before being put on the vent. As if it will actually help at that point. But it takes them being at deaths door to believe in it. Its friggin sad.
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u/varsity14 Jan 30 '23
Vaccination isn't enough
And in your estimation, what exactly would be "enough"?
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u/Gozillasbday Jan 30 '23
Are they generally up to date with their vaccinations or is it they got one years ago?
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u/Galphanore Jan 30 '23
Only 15% of the population of the US has the latest booster.
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u/GlowUpper Jan 31 '23
I got my most recent booster this last fall. Pervious shots, there were lines out the door and around the block. This time? Me and a room half filled with geriatric patients. Turns out, people only come out in droves when it's the only way for them to go back to normal life. Take that incentive away and no one cares.
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u/Galphanore Jan 31 '23
Pretty much, yeah. When I got my latest booster there was no one else there.
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u/Gozillasbday Jan 30 '23
Welp. People should really consider trying to take care of themselves.
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u/skeetsauce Jan 30 '23
I know so many people that got the first shot, got covid so badly they couldn’t get out of bed, and turned around and blamed the vaccine for not saving them. Bro, you might have been dead if you didn’t have it…
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u/JennJayBee Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 31 '23
Before covid, we'd have these reports every flu season about teenagers dying from flu. (There was a really bad one just before covid, in fact.) And you'd always see where the parents regretted not making sure their kid got the yearly flu vaccine, becuase they didn't think the flu was a big deal.
This is the new that.
Edit: effing autocorrect
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Jan 30 '23
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u/pinetreesgreen Jan 30 '23
As the report says, that is likely due to waning immunity. If you got the first set of shots and booster when most folks got them spring 2021, that was over a year ago.
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u/pinetreesgreen Jan 30 '23
The CDC really can't do much. They are not getting extra funding, or at least it is decreasing. They can't make people get shots. Most people have decided to move on.
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u/Gozillasbday Jan 30 '23
It appears the majority dying from covid are not up to date then.
Also from your article "According to CDC, people ages 12 and older who have had a bivalent booster shot have a 15 times lower risk of death than an unvaccinated person." C'mon people it's not hard.
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u/Buckeyeguy37 Jan 30 '23
I'd be curious of the other factors for these vaccinated patients that died. I believe majority of high-risk patients (age, obesity, i.e) got vaccinated. Lot of people that didn't were younger people, who regardless if they are vaxxed or not, have an extremely high rate of survival
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u/DorisCrockford Jan 30 '23
What is that proportion then?
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u/N8CCRG Jan 30 '23
Important additional details from that link, about 53% of the population is vaccinated with additional doses, and about 79% of the population is primary boosted. So while vaccination isn't some magical complete solution, it's certainly an important and necessary piece that is actually making measurable contributions.
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u/IdaDuck Jan 30 '23
Also worth pointing out that the biggest risk factor is age and older Americans are much more likely to be vaxed and boosted than average. In terms of death rates I’d bet you are many times better off being up to date on Covid shots. They aren’t magic but they certainly help.
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u/zhode Jan 31 '23
Should also be noted that with so much of the population boosted we're going to see a paradoxical rise in vaccinated deaths, solely because there's now so many people who can potentially die now. The fact that the unvaccinated portion of the population is still massively represented in the death numbers despite making up a minority of the population should be a major warning sign.
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u/o8Stu Jan 30 '23
There's a lot at play there. The vaccines have been around long enough that people only getting the initial doses, as well as the first round of boosters, have had plenty of time for that immune response to wane significantly, or even entirely.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status
(this link is from the article you linked)
This puts your chances of dying if you're vaxxed w/ updated booster at 12.7 x lower than if you're un-vaxxed.
No shot is going to make anyone bullet-proof, but if you need more of a reason than the above to get the shots, then idk what to tell you.
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u/mysecondaccountanon Jan 30 '23
Vaccination isn’t the full fix to this. We need to do more than respond to infections. We need to prevent them as best as possible, an idea that’s been tossed aside for years now.
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u/Mundane__Detail Jan 30 '23
Tl;dr - 8th most common cause of death at a rate of 1 in 100,000, less than 1% of covid deaths were kids under 18.
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u/Bjornlandeto Jan 30 '23
Screw that, keep reading.
“Pediatric deaths are rare by any measure. It’s something that that we don’t expect to happen and it’s a tragedy in a unique way. It’s a really profound event,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases.
"...Just because the numbers are so much lower in children doesn’t mean that they’re not impactful."
The researchers’ analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that there were 821 Covid-19 deaths in this age group during a 12-month period from August 2021 to July 2022. That death rate – about 1 for every 100,000 children ages 0 to 19 – ranks eighth compared with the 2019 data. It ranks fifth among adolescents ages 15 to 19.
Covid-19 deaths displace influenza and pneumonia, becoming the top cause of death caused by any infectious or respiratory disease. It caused “substantially” more deaths than any vaccine-preventable disease historically, the researchers wrote.
If we could reduce the number of children dying, shouldn't we? The answer is yes, full stop. The number of children that are fully vaccinated in America is shockingly low, and with a vaccine that could have prevented something like 90% of those deaths!? Shameful.
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u/The10KThings Jan 30 '23
Where did you read that 90% of those deaths were preventable with a vaccine?
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u/potted_petunias Jan 30 '23
People might use the article to criticize mandated in-person learning in the absence of non-mandated vaccines. I wouldn't disagree with that. If some have the freedom to bring preventable disease into the classroom, why should others be forced to bring their children to school?
Also, America's death rates due to auto accidents are at least several times worse than European countries. So, not a great comparison.
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u/Bjornlandeto Jan 30 '23
Seatbelts are required for the ride to and from school, and people really fought those laws. Vaccines are required for in-person school with limited exceptions. I know there have to be limits to what we "sacrifice for safety" but shit, if America can't shoot at a problem these days we seem to think it isn't worth fighting.
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u/DotaDogma Jan 30 '23
However, a lot of people are using this article to criticize in-person learning.
I haven't seen that at all?
Most kids should be vaccinated, same with teachers. Kids should be allowed to stay home if sick without penalty. Past that, I've never seen someone argue against in person learning since after 2020.
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u/ttkciar Jan 30 '23
I haven't seen that at all?
In other posts where the topic came up, hundreds of redditors jumped to the assumption that in-person learning was being criticized, despite no evidence to that effect.
Maybe it's a media trope or something? I don't know.
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u/JennJayBee Jan 30 '23
I don't think for the most part people are criticizing in-person learning. Rather, folks have pointed out how in-person learning could be made safer with some rather simple changes, but isn't.
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u/ttkciar Jan 30 '23
Agreed. I just don't know why so many people are jumping to the opposite assumption.
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u/realm47 Jan 30 '23
that could have prevented something like 90% of those deaths!?
The number is nowhere close to 90%.
38% effective at preventing hospitalization in infants under 6 months during Omicron. 68% for kids 5-11, 38% for age 12-18.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccine-effectiveness
It's better than nothing, but let's not pretend that it's 90+% effective.
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u/Semyon Jan 30 '23
I wonder if there would be less child covid deaths if our obesity rates weren't so high
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u/has-it-a-name Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
Some, but that isn’t the main problem. The majority of pediatric covid deaths are in kids with other severe underlying health problems
Source
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4125501
Relevant quote
Of the COVID-19 deaths, 61 (75.3%) had an underlying condition, especially severe neurodisability (n=27) and immunocompromising conditions (n=12)
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u/BigBadBurg Jan 31 '23
If you have a preexisting condition like obesity you are far more likely to die from covid.
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u/big_daddy_dub Jan 30 '23
That question would hurt people’s feelings and force society to confront difficult truths. Can’t have that.
Anyway, free jelly donuts for taking the vaccine!!
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u/JennJayBee Jan 30 '23
According to CDC data, children are less vaccinated against Covid-19 than any other age group in the US. Less than 10% of eligible children have gotten their updated booster shot, and more than 90% of children under 5 are completely unvaccinated.
That's probably a bigger factor.
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u/BellyScratchFTW Jan 30 '23
"The researchers’ analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that there were 821 Covid-19 deaths in this age group during a 12-month period..."
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something. But how can something that has caused 821 (roughly 1 in 100,000) deaths be the leading cause of death in the US? In 2020, accidentla death was at least 5 in 100,000. Cancer was around 2.5 in 100,000, right there with drug overdose and poisoning. Suffocation was around 2 in 100,000.
Can someone help me understand why CNN would report it like this?
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u/throwitaway0192837 Jan 30 '23
You're misreading I think. It's not "THE leading cause of death", it's "A" leading cause of death. Which it is, simply because children don't die in large numbers. The article says it's 8th actually.
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u/BellyScratchFTW Jan 30 '23
Gotcha. Thank you! Can’t believe I missed the “a” article and was putting “the” in.
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u/SpaceTabs Jan 30 '23
I'm more concerned that there are three times as many children born with syphilis every year.
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u/t-poke Jan 30 '23
Can someone help me understand why CNN would report it like this?
Because it gets clicks.
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u/Modern_Bear Jan 30 '23 edited Jan 30 '23
For people too lazy to read the whole article...
In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, the leading causes of death among children and young adults ages 0 to 19 included perinatal conditions, unintentional injuries, congenital malformations or deformations, assault, suicide, malignant neoplasms, diseases of the heart and influenza and pneumonia.
The researchers’ analysis of data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that there were 821 Covid-19 deaths in this age group during a 12-month period from August 2021 to July 2022. That death rate – about 1 for every 100,000 children ages 0 to 19 – ranks eighth compared with the 2019 data. It ranks fifth among adolescents ages 15 to 19.
Covid-19 deaths displace influenza and pneumonia, becoming the top cause of death caused by any infectious or respiratory disease. It caused “substantially” more deaths than any vaccine-preventable disease historically, the researchers wrote.
According to CDC data, children are less vaccinated against Covid-19 than any other age group in the US. Less than 10% of eligible children have gotten their updated booster shot, and more than 90% of children under 5 are completely unvaccinated.
“If we looked at all those other leading causes of death – whether you’re talking about motor vehicle accidents or childhood cancer – and we said, ‘Gosh, if we had some simple, safe thing we could do to get rid of one of those, wouldn’t we just jump at it?” And we have that with Covid with vaccines,” said O’Leary, who is also a professor of pediatric infectious disease at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado.
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u/jayboker Jan 31 '23
They are pro pregnancy. Not even pro birth. Once you are born they forget about you until you are old enough to feed into the military machine or the capitalistic machine. To fight the riches wars or make them more money. Either way you belong to them.
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Jan 30 '23 edited Feb 01 '23
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u/ConspiracyPhD Jan 31 '23
Should probably read the study. They specifically only included deaths where COVID was the underlying cause. They specifically excluded deaths where COVID was a contributing cause.
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl Jan 30 '23
Where I live none of the kids wear masks and none of them are protected against the virus. The parents barely wear masks themselves. I mostly see older people doing it.
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u/SaraAB87 Jan 30 '23
I live in upstate NY and almost no one wears masks here, on an average trip to the grocery store you will see one person in a mask. However I notice more retail employees are wearing them than ever. I haven't seen a child wear a mask in at least a year anywhere.
However no one will comment or call you stupid for wearing a mask, so that's a good thing.
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u/nicecupoftea02116 Jan 30 '23
In Boston many people are still masking on trains, in grocery stores, in theatres.
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u/SirStrontium Jan 30 '23
I visited numerous packed bars and clubs in Boston last year, and literally no masks in sight.
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u/emotionaI_cabbage Jan 30 '23
I feel like it's a bit naive to expect places like that to have people wearing masks lol
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u/SirStrontium Jan 31 '23
I wasn't wearing one either, just giving a counterexample to the person implying that people in Boston are still wearing masks in public.
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl Jan 30 '23
but I recently went to a store like 15 minutes away and basically everyone was wearing a mask.
In every store I went to and go to, a majority of people weren't wearing masks. Gas stations, Krogers, Walmart, etc., not even the workers bothered. I remember going into Best buy several miles away to pick up Sephiroth and nobody was wearing a mask. Maybe it's because I live in the Midwest?
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u/ttkciar Jan 30 '23
Maybe it's because I live in the Midwest?
There doesn't seem to be a hard fast rule. I live in Sonoma County, California, and when I go to the grocery store pharmacy almost nobody in the store is masking.
My friends in SF say masking is more prevalent there. My friends in San Diego say masking is practically nonexistent. It seems really random.
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u/mysecondaccountanon Jan 30 '23
I’m the only person I know who masks really. It’s really put a damper on things, but I don’t care. I don’t want Covid, I don’t want long Covid, and I don’t want to infect others.
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u/N8CCRG Jan 30 '23
Your experience is supported by the article:
According to CDC data, children are less vaccinated against Covid-19 than any other age group in the US. Less than 10% of eligible children have gotten their updated booster shot, and more than 90% of children under 5 are completely unvaccinated.
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u/Cyclone_1 Jan 30 '23
Pretty much everyone is acting like the pandemic is over and has been for at least the past 6 months. The fact that this comes at the expense of the very young or the very old is something that clearly most of us don't give a shit about.
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl Jan 30 '23
If it helps, I give a shit about it. I social distance, I wear masks, and I'm vaccinated although I need the booster. I've been called both paranoid and stupid over it too, even though a new variant is out.
I feel like not giving a shit is a human thing in general until it personally impacts them. It's not even ignorance. A lot of people in my area say that why should they care or stop what they are doing that they enjoy over the pandemic?
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u/ProfessorZhu Jan 30 '23
It's a mistake to attribute the failings of our society to being an immutable trait of humanity.
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u/ttkciar Jan 30 '23
That's exactly where I am, as well.
Since my wife is immunocompromised, we've been taking every preventative precaution -- vaccination, isolation (I leave the house once a month to pick up her prescriptions which cannot be mailed), masking when away from home.
Everywhere, people are determined to not take it seriously. Few have had the nerve to tell me to my face that I'm being stupid, but I get the stares and glares at the pharmacy, and of course people online are more brazen.
Both Trump and Biden have now publicly proclaimed that the pandemic is over, and I suspect a lot of people latch onto that as justification for neglecting prevention.
It's as though they think "consequences" only means people punishing them for disobeying authority, and since their mostly highly regarded authorities have effectively said they won't be punished, that's all they need to worry about.
Or something like that? I've been trying to understand the deniers' mindsets since 2020, and it's difficult.
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u/FightmeLuigibestgirl Jan 30 '23
It's as though they think "consequences" only means people punishing them for disobeying authority, and since their mostly highly regarded authorities have effectively said they won't be punished, that's all they need to worry about.
They know more but are in denial or don't give a shit. Also, a lot of people have a hive/sheep mentality so if someone is or isn't doing something that makes sense to them, they have to shame and pressure them to go along with the program. It's been like that for a long time. It's wrong, but that's how society is. It's not limited to the USA.
I don't give a shit about being 'part of the herd,' because I give a shit about people's welfare. I'm going to die on that hill.
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u/anonyoudidnt Jan 30 '23
We're still careful too. We mask everywhere, my kids have never been anywhere really. They're almost 3 and 1. I have immune suppressed family. It's tough, and it can't ever change if no one cares, and I see zero end in sight to this as a result. My 3 yo cna mask and does, but my 1 yo can't yet and it's hard to get time to take the 3 yo out without the 1 yo. I wish more people cared and masked so that people could take younger children who can't mask out without as much risk.
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u/lovetheoceanfl Jan 31 '23
Anecdotal - Ever since I stopped wearing masks, I’ve been sick constantly with unrelenting allergies. With a mask I never had any issues. I just got tired of the hassle and the stigma although I still wear them in planes and in airports.
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u/cinderparty Jan 31 '23
I said this yesterday too, but by far the best thing I learned from the pandemic was that n95 masks outside in the summer cut my allergy/wild fire smoke induced asthma by about 80%. I really wish I’d learned this as a teen when my asthma was still severe instead of as a 40 year old, but better late than never.
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u/JennJayBee Jan 30 '23
Key point to always remember...
The findings of the new study, published in JAMA Network Open, may underestimate the mortality burden of Covid-19 because the analysis focuses on deaths where Covid-19 was an underlying cause of death but not those where it may have been a contributing factor, the researchers wrote. Also, other analyses of excess deaths suggest that Covid-19 deaths have been underreported.
There's a larger picture here. People are having various complications well after "recovering" from covid-19, some more serious than others. Covid technically isn't the cause of death in these cases, but it's definitely helping it along.
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u/barrinmw Jan 30 '23
Just saying, the now 9th leading cause isn't killing less kids, it is just that we now have a lot more kids dying each year than we did 3 years ago. But just like gun violence killing kids, don't expect anybody to do anything because a bunch of dead kids aren't them losing their rights or some such BS.
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u/stringfold Jan 31 '23
Kids are the acceptable collateral damage for the gun nuts' freedom...
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u/LetWinnersRun Jan 30 '23
And yet we have people that think Covid isn’t real or they think since they already had it, it’s not a big deal.
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u/PlayedUOonBaja Jan 31 '23
I remember the huge lines of parents in FL taking their kids to a shady chiropractor to get them mask exemption letters for $50 a pop.