As the Government assesses the pros and cons of vaccinating children, new data has revealed that just 25 under-18s in England died from the virus between March 2020 and February 2021. This equates to an absolute risk of one in 481,000. In the same period, 124 children died from suicide and 268 died from trauma. The researchers conclude that lockdown “may prove a greater risk than… SARS-CoV-2 itself”. The MailOnline has the story.
Young people with pre-existing medical conditions, like heart disease and cancer, and severe disability, which can include cerebral palsy and autism, have a higher chance of becoming seriously ill from the virus.
But the scientists – from three top British universities – said this risk is no higher than the risk from flu.
Teenagers, black and obese children were also at higher risk from dying with Covid but these numbers were still very low, they found.
Researchers said their findings – which were published in three separate papers today – will help inform vaccine and shielding policy for under-18s.
They will submit the studies to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the Department for Health and the World Health Organisation. …
The studies were led by researchers at University College London, the University of York and the University of Liverpool.
One of the studies is the first to determine the number of children who died from Covid rather than with the virus. It concluded that the virus killed 25 children in England.
The coronavirus contributed to 0.8% of the 3,105 deaths in children from all causes in the first year of the pandemic.
During the same period, 124 children died from suicide, while 268 died from trauma, showing that Covid “is rarely fatal” in children, the researchers said.
They found the under-18s who died were more likely to be teenagers than younger children, showing that the risk from the virus increases with age.
Higher proportions of Asian and black children died from the virus but these deaths were “still extremely rare”, they said.
More than 75% of the children who died had chronic conditions, while two-thirds had more than one underlying condition and 60% had life-limiting conditions.
Six of the children who died were not recorded as having an underlying health problem, but the scientists said they may have had undiagnosed illnesses.
The paper states that the “extremely low” risk of death means removing children from their normal activities like school and social events “may prove a greater risk than that of SARS-CoV-2 itself”.
A second study found that 251 young people in England were admitted to intensive care with Covid from March 2020 to February this year, which equates to around a one in 50,000 risk.
Of these patients, 91% had one or more underlying health conditions.
They also found one in 2,000 were admitted to hospital with Covid, equating to almost 6,000 children. …
A third study, which was led by Dr Rachel Harwood at the University of Liverpool, supported the findings of the other papers.
The researchers found that of the children admitted to hospital with Covid, those at the highest risk of severe illness or death are teenagers, have heart or brain conditions, two or more underlying condition, or are obese.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Note to the moderator. My account has been hacked. My posting history has been deleted and when I try to access the “my content and setting” link at the head of the the post I get an insulting response. Please delete this message when you have read it and advise me what action to take other that change my password which I have done.
My posting history is similarly unavailable. When I try to access it I get the message “N0nc€ is invalid. Only it’s spelt correctly. I don’t remember using that word in a comment, perhaps I was infuriated by something someone at the BBC had done, they do seem to glorify pedophiles somewhat…
Try editing your post and see whether you are told that you are posting too quickly when you click Edit
Sorry, when you click Save – I couldn’t edit it to correct it.
That message crops up occasionally and I just log out and log back in.
Nonce is a technical term. Don’t worry, DS is not calling you a nonce. They’ve got their encryption in a mess…
Nonce: random or semi-random number that is generated for a specific use. It is related to cryptographic communication and information technology (IT). The term stands for “number used once” or “number once” and is commonly referred to as a cryptographic nonce.
Thanks for the clarification MAk, as does the “Posting too fast – slow down” message. Clearly abbreviations not intended to be seen by the public.
Okey dokey
Same here, Boomer, I don’t think it’s anything to do with your previous comments. Come on, DS, sort it out! By the way, I’ve never knew you could look at your posting history but mine doesn’t exist either!
I have also set up a completely new account and it is similarly afflicted so it is a site hack, not directed at me personally.
Did you email the DS team yet? Perhaps get back to us with their response, seeing as this is an issue that isn’t affecting you alone. I think this site also suffers from glitches on a regular basis. It’s obviously seen as a threat! lol
Yes. Response from Toby acknowledging that they are trying to sort it.
I’ve had a look, and your past comments are still in the database (2,286 of them), so it’s presumably some kind of UI bug. However, I’m not sure what you’re looking at – are you referring to My Account->Post View Stats, or somewhere else?
As to the comment rate limiting / flood prevention, I’ve turned that off.
Thanks for the response, Ian.
Ah, I see. I get the same error. Looks like a bug introduced in the latest version of the comments software, which was released earlier this week. I’ll file a bug report.
Software bugs have been the bane of my working life and seem to pursuing me into retirement!
I knew it wasn’t a scam. I got an email from a Nigerian Prince 2 weeks ago saying he was selling the bronzes and if I could give him my bank details he would deposit the money there for safe keeping…only happy to help!
Excellent! Never interrupt a fool.
Such nice people.
I think we need Diane Abbot piercing insight in all matters Black, to guide us through this tangled web.