Covid and Kids

I feel like I'm "cheating" just copying threads instead of writing, but so much work on social media needs to be acknowledged and saved in a more searchable manner. Here's a thread from @MeetJess. She's the go-to for long threads chronicling sudden deaths of teens and young adults - picked up by Fortune magazine even, but today she focused on the lies we've been told about children. She discusses BC specifically, but this is the case in many parts of Canada. I flushed it out a bit in places for clarity:

Covid "doesn't affect kids" was one of the very first lies that was fed to the public: Kids didn't get sick, kids can't transmit the virus, kids won't have lasting effects. Kids are being sent into unsafe schools, repeatedly infected. 

One thousand B.C. kids were hospitalized, thousands left with Long Covid. A study has shown that kids who have special immunodeficiency illnesses are at a higher mortality rate due to Covid-19 complications. Some kids and teens have long-term lung damage after Covid-19. Covid-19 neurological complications, long-term complications ["7% have seizures, brain damage].  Children hospitalized with Covid-19 can have lingering health issues months later. Your kid's school needs better ventilation to help keep Covid-19 in check. 

Don't count on a runny nose as an indicator. Young kids with Covid-19 often have no symptoms at all even when they have a high viral load, according to a study supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children ["(MIS-C) may develop weeks after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection or exposure . . . including severe cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms"] and Long Covid : The SARS-CoV-2 viral superantigen hypothesis [suggests the body reacts to Covid as it does to Toxic Shock Syndrome]. Covid-19 is associated with a 72% greater risk of Type 1 Diabetes among children. 

Emails show Dr. Bonnie Henry knew of concerns over BC's Covid-19 data and school exposures while publicly downplaying them. How many more have lied? A "tripledemic"? Flu and other infections return as Covid cases rise. Flu cases are higher than usual for this time of year and are expected to soar in the coming weeks. A third virus, RSV, is straining pediatric hospitals in some states. 

Pediatric hospitals are at capacity; children are being infected repeatedly in poorly ventilated classrooms with zero protections in place. With each infection comes risk of debilitating illness even for our kids. Society is failing them. They don't deserve this.

This is fitting today as a teacher also sent me this image from a principal, 

And the teacher added this,

Something to be aware of: Principals are being told they do not have to report 50% of their student being absent to Public Health. I was in classrooms today with only five students present. This is not normal, especially before flu season officially kicks in.

Our Minister of Health, Sylvia Jones (who just tested positive for Covid today), made it clear that we're not in a health care crisis at this point, but check out this brief exchange between two medical health professionals:

If this isn't a health care crisis, then I'd hate to see what one actually looks like!

Here's one testimonial from a 16-year-old Kitty McFarland who has Long Covid after being fit and healthy just two years earlier. 

Severe symptoms subsided after a few days and her health appeared to improve . . . but the relapse Kitty suffered left her bedbound for the next eight months. . . . Sometimes I needed help to eat all my food; at other times, I couldn't physically lift a glass because I was so weak. . . . Visual disturbances and brain fog meant that even watching TV or trying to text left her feeling nauseated and exhausted.

At least CUPE, SEIU, Ontario Nurses' Association, OPSEU, and Unifor sent a group letter wrote to Ford and Jones demanding a meeting to address the staffing crisis: