On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Ever since then, the U.S. has been reeling with the social, political and emotional toll that the disease has taken.
As America has continually mourned over 638,000 deaths, the divisive standpoints on vaccines, lockdowns and masks widen with seemingly no end in sight. With a consistent stream of confusing information, Americans are wondering what to believe and who to trust.
CNN reported last week that “the U.S. is once again at a point where an average of more than 2,000 people die of COVID-19 every day.”
On the brunt end of the recent rise in cases in children. CNN reported on Sept. 14 that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) had announced “243,373 new cases among kids over the past week. That’s about a 240% increase since early July, when kids accounted for 71,726 cases.” According to the AAP, “As of Sept. 23, over 5.7 million children have tested positive for COVID since the onset of the pandemic. The number of new child COVID cases remains exceptionally high. Nearly 207,000 cases were added the past week, the fifth consecutive week with over 200,000 child cases added.”
One of the major factors of this situation is the return to school.
For some kids, this semester is their first time back since the pandemic started. With multiple states starting the school year with a ban on mask mandates, the predicted increases in child cases were fulfilled. Many parents experienced uncertainty in sending their kids back to school, and health experts have said this is completely valid. However, with the right steps taken, a school could be safe.
“What we’ve seen about reopening schools is that we can keep transmission down with a layered approach,” said Dr. Karen Acker, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, in an interview with Healthline.
The increased children case counts is also concerning on an economic level. CNN reported mid-September that data analysis from the “Kaiser Family Foundation found, using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as studies on health care costs, that each preventable COVID-19 hospitalization costs about $20,000.”
The report continues, stating, “The analysis estimates that preventable costs for treating hospitalized, unvaccinated COVID-19 patients reached $5.7 billion over the last three months.” Considering that children now make up almost 23% of all cases and haven’t yet been cleared for vaccination, that number is going to continue to rise.
In the world of vaccines and treatments, there have been multiple new developments for both children and adults.
Pfizer announced this month that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children ages five to 11, and reports have said that they sent in data later today for official approval. Pfizer also recently got a booster dose approved for people over 65 after much debate. President Biden was on the receiving end of his third shot earlier this week, saying, “Now, I know it doesn’t look like it, but I am over 65, and that’s why I am getting my booster shot today.”
Adults with certain underlying health conditions and people living in long-term care facilities have also been cleared for a third dose.
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