Thread by @DrEricDing

⚠️Even youths with *mild or asymptomatic* initial #COVID19 infections may experience #LongCovid—affecting schooling, sleep: 11-15% of infected youths might “end up with this long-term consequence—pretty devastating for school performance” says NIH chief🧵
nytimes.com/2021/08/08/hea…

2) “Will Grogan stared blankly at his ninth-grade biology classwork. It was material he had mastered the day before, but it looked utterly unfamiliar.

3) “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he blurted. His teacher and classmates reminded him how adeptly he’d answered questions about the topic during the previous class. “I’ve never seen this before,” he insisted, becoming so distressed that the teacher excused him

4) “The episode, earlier this year, was one of numerous cognitive mix-ups that plagued Will, 15, after he contracted the coronavirus in October, along with issues like fatigue and severe leg pain.”

5) Studies estimate long Covid may affect between 10 percent and 30 percent of adults infected with the coronavirus. Estimates from the handful of studies of children so far range widely. nature.com/articles/d4158…

6) At an April congressional hearing, Dr. Francis Collins, director of NIH, cited one study suggesting that between 11-15 percent of infected youths might “end up with this long-term consequence, which can be pretty devastating in terms of things like school performance.”

7) “The potential impact is huge,” said Dr. Avindra Nath, chief of infections of the nervous system at the NINDS. “I mean, they’re in their formative years. Once you start falling behind, it’s very hard because the kids lose their own self-confidence too. It’s a downward spiral.”

8) “Will, an Eagle Scout, a talented tennis player and a highly motivated student who loves studying languages so much that he takes both French and Arabic, said he used to feel “taking naps is a waste of sunlight.”

9) “But Covid made him so fatigued that he could barely leave his bed for 35 days, and he was so dizzy that he had to sit to keep from fainting in the shower. When he returned to his Dallas high school classes, brain fog caused him to see “numbers floating off the page” in math

10) At Boston Children’s Hospital, with long Covid patients from across the country, “we’re seeing things like fatigue, headaches, brain fog, memory and concentration difficulties, sleep disturbances, ongoing change in smell and taste,” said Dr. Molly Wilson-Murphy.

11) She said most patients were “kids who had Covid and weren’t hospitalized, recovered at home, and then they have symptoms that just never go away — or they seem to get totally better and then a couple of weeks or a month or so after, they develop symptoms.”

12) Okay, let’s get real with data— how much of an IQ drop are we talking about here? Huge study—If on ventilator and survive - 7 point IQ point drop. If hospitalized without vent, about 4 point drop. But even if not hospitalized, 1-2 point drop!!! We can’t allow that for kids!!

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1419873294023602176

13) to avoid all that suffering for kids, wear a mask for them to protect them. Put our kids welfare above politics please.

14) the #DeltaVariant severity stats are back up by hospitalization data and stories from pediatricians. Please watch and share.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1425265716580831235

15) also remember — Babies and toddlers can’t be protected unless you vaccinate and mask! It’s just that simple.

https://twitter.com/safeedforall_uk/status/1425920289284702221