Thread by @drraghibali

Important paper on deaths in children & young people (CYP) in 1st year of pandemic. Reassuring results for Covid:
- of 12 million CYP in England, 3105 died
- of these, 25 (<1%) were due to Covid
- 99.995% of CYP with positive test survived
However..
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nature.com/articles/s4159…

..as Dr Camilla Kingdon, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said:

Meanwhile, successive lockdowns and social distancing caused far greater consequences “through lost education, mental health, and other collateral damage”,

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"But what we would constantly try to point out – and which some of this data shows – is actually, these are wider issues that are no less detrimental to children and may have a more long lasting impact actually, then the virus itself,”

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Dr Kingdon said children had paid “a very, very heavy price” for the pandemic. And she said the impact was seen in many aspects of their health.

She warned: “You can also see it in community child health services, autism assessments, therapy referrals.

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Prof Russell Viner, professor adolescent health at University College London and author of the paper said: “When you look at this data together, it tells us that the indirect effects of the pandemic on children are likely to be significantly greater than the direct effects.”

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This is a reminder to ensure restrictions to control Covid do not cause greater harm than Covid itself - a basic principle for any intervention in medicine or public health.
Many decisions had to be taken before we had this evidence but we must learn from it for the future.

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Quotes from here:
telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/1…