Fresno-area doctors push back at false narrative about children and COVID-19. Here’s why
The coronavirus may affect children differently than adults — but they are still susceptible to getting the potentially fatal virus and passing it around, officials with Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera said Thursday.
Pediatricians and other officials said they are troubled by a narrative being parroted by some individuals, that children are not prone to getting sick or worse.
Fresno-area school leaders, elected officials and others concerned about the economy in California have pushed to open schools as the first step to getting people back to work .
Valley Children’s CEO Todd Suntrapak, who spoke to reporters during a media call over Zoom, said he wanted to emphasize that children are at risk to the coronavirus.
“When we see a dialogue and a narrative that is focused on how small the risk is numerically to children, it is particularly objectionable,” he said on Thursday.
Of the more than 413,000 positive cases of COVID-19 in the state, children younger than 18 make up about 8.7%, doctors said. In the Valley, an even higher percentage of the cases that have tested positive are children, about 12%.
At Valley Children’s 6,473 children have been tested and 8% came back positive through Wednesday, according to David Christensen, senior vice president of medical affairs and chief physician executive at Valley Children’s.
Of those sick children, 69 have had to be hospitalized.
“It is true that these kids can get very sick, especially if they have an underlying condition,” Christensen said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says children who are 9 or younger have spread the virus at much lower rates than those older than 10. That has to do with what symptoms are most common in younger children.
Some schools in the state had decided to go online for next semester, and others — like Clovis Unified — were going to send children in person before Gov. Gavin Newsom stopped that plan. Counties on the state watch list have to meet certain markers before children can return to classrooms.
Christensen said he would be comfortable endorsing children returning to the classroom — after counties flatten the curve of infections.
Valley residents should also continue mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing, the hospital’s pediatricians said.
From early on, Valley Children’s has been screening people who enter the facility. The hospital instituted safety guidelines doctors are recommending for all people, according to Nael Mhaissen, medical director of pediatric infectious diseases at Valley Children’s.
“Our efforts here are not isolated from the efforts of the community. We are trying our best,” he said. “We would also like to ask the assistance from the community to help us mitigate the transmission of COVID-19.”
