3 ms·

> Children die because their parents believe in anti-vax nonsense Do we know how many otherwise healthy children caught Covid and died from it? My impression

> Children die because their parents believe in anti-vax nonsense Do we know how many otherwise healthy children caught Covid and died from it? My impression from the official figures is that in most countries the number is vanishingly small if not zero.

pmarreck 1y ago
Well, it's CERTAINLY not ZERO... I recall seeing numerous articles about overweight children dying of it, for example Remember that even polio only put like 1% of its victims into an iron lung
- freedomben 1y ago
  I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with GP, but I would imagine they would argue that an overweight kid is not "otherwise healthy children."
  - kube-system 1y ago
    And I would argue that lives have value even when people have preexisting medical conditions.
    - freedomben 1y ago
      I certainly don't disagree with that, and I would imagine there aren't many people who would, but it is not in any way an argument against how many otherwise healthy children died of covid. If you want to make an argument that an overweight child should still be considered otherwise healthy, that would be a welcome and relevant argument, and also an interesting one.
      - kube-system 1y ago
        I am saying that narrowing the discussion to "otherwise healthy children" is a reductive to a silly degree. The point is to protect all children, many of which are not otherwise healthy, or for that matter, may become unhealthy at some point.
        logifail 1y ago
        > The point is to protect all children You'd close schools to protect a minority of children with comorbidities from a virus which doesn't threaten the vast majority of children, knowing that school closures will definitely damage all children? Umm.
        kube-system 1y ago
        Nobody suggested anything of that sort in this entire thread.
        int_19h 1y ago
        Is it really true about "vast majority"? In US, at least, it seems that the number of children with comorbidities such as obesity would actually be pretty high. You could argue that it's still a minority so long as it's under 50%, but I think that closing schools to protect, say, 20% of kids from a virus that can kill them is eminently reasonable.
    - logifail 1y ago
      > I would argue that lives have value even when people have preexisting medical conditions (Otherwise healthy) school-age children - and younger adults - always faced a very low risk from Covid-19, and we had solid statistical data on this from at least May 2020 onwards. Maybe we need to look at where our decision-makers get their information, and their incentives?
      - kube-system 1y ago
        Again, that's all fine and great. However, many people are not "otherwise healthy" today, and nobody knows who is going to be "otherwise healthy" tomorrow.
      - pmarreck 1y ago
        Okay, what is the trade-off for ignoring that risk? What's a few extra dead kids, right? They weren’t healthy anyway, it’s just Darwinian. Much easier just to suspect an unfounded conspiracy instead. Maybe your username should be “empathyfail”
- Izkata 1y ago
  If you take the percentages from the CDC and multiply them out (and don't fall for the "polio" vs "paralytic polio" sleight of hand), it was way smaller than that - somewhere on the order of 0.01%. The flu, for example, was always a worse risk than polio, people just became fearful of polio because we found a way to save some lives in a non-ideal way, which became very visible.
  - fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
    Presented as fact without evidence, preemptively dismissing contrary evidence from the most likely source to have the historical data. I'd love to see your sources for the risk of severe lifelong injury or death of polio vs the flu.
const_cast 1y ago
So many caveats to this comment... > "otherwise healthy" Yeah, not all kids are otherwise healthy. There's kids with Leukemia or whatever that are extremely immunocompromised because of chemotherapy. They have to coexist with anti-vaxxers and, believe it or not, their lives matter too. > caught Covid You think the anti-vaxx crazy train starts and stops at Covid? These people have been attacking MMR for much longer than Covid. Children DO die to measles, mumps, and what have you.
mbac32768 1y ago
In my state it was 2. The absolute number.

pmarreck 1y ago

Well, it's CERTAINLY not ZERO... I recall seeing numerous articles about overweight children dying of it, for example Remember that even polio only put like 1% of its victims into an iron lung

freedomben 1y ago
I'm not agreeing nor disagreeing with GP, but I would imagine they would argue that an overweight kid is not "otherwise healthy children."
- kube-system 1y ago
  And I would argue that lives have value even when people have preexisting medical conditions.
  - freedomben 1y ago
    I certainly don't disagree with that, and I would imagine there aren't many people who would, but it is not in any way an argument against how many otherwise healthy children died of covid. If you want to make an argument that an overweight child should still be considered otherwise healthy, that would be a welcome and relevant argument, and also an interesting one.
    - kube-system 1y ago
      I am saying that narrowing the discussion to "otherwise healthy children" is a reductive to a silly degree. The point is to protect all children, many of which are not otherwise healthy, or for that matter, may become unhealthy at some point.
      - logifail 1y ago
        > The point is to protect all children You'd close schools to protect a minority of children with comorbidities from a virus which doesn't threaten the vast majority of children, knowing that school closures will definitely damage all children? Umm.
        kube-system 1y ago
        Nobody suggested anything of that sort in this entire thread.
        int_19h 1y ago
        Is it really true about "vast majority"? In US, at least, it seems that the number of children with comorbidities such as obesity would actually be pretty high. You could argue that it's still a minority so long as it's under 50%, but I think that closing schools to protect, say, 20% of kids from a virus that can kill them is eminently reasonable.
  - logifail 1y ago
    > I would argue that lives have value even when people have preexisting medical conditions (Otherwise healthy) school-age children - and younger adults - always faced a very low risk from Covid-19, and we had solid statistical data on this from at least May 2020 onwards. Maybe we need to look at where our decision-makers get their information, and their incentives?
    - kube-system 1y ago
      Again, that's all fine and great. However, many people are not "otherwise healthy" today, and nobody knows who is going to be "otherwise healthy" tomorrow.
    - pmarreck 1y ago
      Okay, what is the trade-off for ignoring that risk? What's a few extra dead kids, right? They weren’t healthy anyway, it’s just Darwinian. Much easier just to suspect an unfounded conspiracy instead. Maybe your username should be “empathyfail”
Izkata 1y ago
If you take the percentages from the CDC and multiply them out (and don't fall for the "polio" vs "paralytic polio" sleight of hand), it was way smaller than that - somewhere on the order of 0.01%. The flu, for example, was always a worse risk than polio, people just became fearful of polio because we found a way to save some lives in a non-ideal way, which became very visible.
- fkyoureadthedoc 1y ago
  Presented as fact without evidence, preemptively dismissing contrary evidence from the most likely source to have the historical data. I'd love to see your sources for the risk of severe lifelong injury or death of polio vs the flu.

const_cast 1y ago

So many caveats to this comment... > "otherwise healthy" Yeah, not all kids are otherwise healthy. There's kids with Leukemia or whatever that are extremely immunocompromised because of chemotherapy. They have to coexist with anti-vaxxers and, believe it or not, their lives matter too. > caught Covid You think the anti-vaxx crazy train starts and stops at Covid? These people have been attacking MMR for much longer than Covid. Children DO die to measles, mumps, and what have you.

mbac32768 1y ago

In my state it was 2. The absolute number.