Thread by @DrEricDing

📍3x KIDS DEATHS—An alarmingly high number of babies & children are dying of #COVID19 in Brazil 🇧🇷. While government data from Brazil suggest >800 children under age 9 have died of Covid—expert estimates that the death toll is nearly **3 times higher**. 🧵
nbcnews.com/news/latino/br…

2) experts say the real death toll is higher because cases are underreported because of a lack of widespread coronavirus testing, according to the BBC.

3) Dr. Fatima Marinho of the University of São Paolo, a leading epidemiologist estimated that the virus has killed 2,060 children under 9, including 1,302 babies.

4) Her estimate is based on the number of excess deaths from an unspecified acute respiratory syndrome during the pandemic.

5) There is a misconception that children are at zero risk for Covid-19, Marinho told the BBC after she found that there have been 10 times more deaths from an unexplained respiratory syndrome over the past year compared to previous years.

6) Throughout her research, she has seen a rise in cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome among Brazil children. The rare syndrome is a newly identified & serious health condition associated with #SARSCoV2. It tends to affect children up to six weeks after they are infected.

7) "the failed response in Brazil has caused a humanitarian catastrophe," Dr. Christos Christou of Doctors Without Borders. "Each week there is a grim new record of deaths and infections — the hospitals are overflowing, and yet there is still no coordinated centralized response."

8) Last week, more than a quarter of the world's coronavirus deaths were in Brazil. Christou said he expects the situation to worsen in the coming weeks if nothing changes.

9) Experts in Brazil say low coronavirus testing rates, lack of contact tracing efforts and a shortage of vaccines have contributed to rises in cases and deaths. These factors have also increased the risk of exposure and potential death among more Brazilian babies and children.

10) "Their refusal to adapt evidence-based public health measures has sent far too many to an early grave.” 😢

11) BBC report— 10x more deaths than past years—estimates that #SARSCoV2 in fact killed 2,060 children <9 years old, including 1,302 babies in Brazil.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1382691594588020743