📍4x kids hospitalizations—NYC reports “4-fold” increase in pediatric hospital #COVID19 admissions for Dec 19th versus week of Dec 5th. Over half of hospitalizations in kids <5–all unvaxxed. 🏥 in kids 5-11 all unvaccinated too. ➡️Protect kids! #vaccinate#MaskUp#Ventilate
2) Don’t forget it’s not just “hospitalizations”—most people with #LongCovid were never hospitalized. And children’s brains are very sensitive. We must protect kids from #LongCovidKids. Neuron damage (such as smell loss) is just the tip of the iceberg. 👇
3) The surge in kids COVID hospitalizations is not just in NYC, but also in England. Pandemic record kids #COVID19 hospital admissions in England during the same week as the NYC spike!! This is now a multi-continental #Omicron crisis in kids.
4) health commissioner @DrMaryTBassett warns: “The risks of COVID-19 for children are real. We are alerting NYers to this recent striking increase in pediatric COVID admissions so that pediatricians, parents can take urgent action to protect our youngest. health.ny.gov/press/releases…
5) “We must use all available safe and effective infection control, prevention & mitigation strategies. Protect your children who are 5+ by vaccinating & protect kids <5 by making sure all of those around them have vaccination, boosters, mask-wearing, avoiding crowds & testing."
6) UPDATE- England kids hospitalizations for #COVID19 has spiked again… these are weekly averages, so real trends, not just daily variability. Anyone who denies Omicron serious risk in kids needs to sit down. Kids are **not practically immune** as one economist dismisses.
7) This isolation cut is not the best response to surging COVID when kids are being hospitalized more than ever.
8) Pediatric hospitalizations for #COVID19 are also spiking to all time high in France 🇫🇷… this is now a global phenomenon, not a fluke.
9) Pediatric ICU hospitalizations for #COVID19 for ages 0-9 also at record high in France 🇫🇷— thus, it’s not just “basic” hospitalizations, as some minimizers claim.
10) overall #COVID19 hospitalizations are now OUTPACING forecasts in England. Essentially - worse than the “milder” projections.
This is a child with monkeypox, a cousin of smallpox. I hope the anti-maskers and “natural immunity” crowd take the virus seriously. Whether it’s the 10% CFR Congo strain or 1% CFR West African #monkeypox strain, both no joke.
2) that photo above is a “typical” presentation of monkeypox, so I’m not at all cherry picking severe cases. And why am I mentioning masks? Because beside direct scab contact, respiratory droplets and aerosols are also likely part of monkeypox transmission.
📍BREAKING—The first confirmed case of #monkeypox in the United States this year just confirmed in a Boston individual who recently travelled to Canada, officials said, as concern rises over the spread of the infectious virus in multiple countries, now US. globalnews.ca/news/8846024/c…
2) Earlier, #monkeypox outbreaks reported in UK, Spain, and Portugal. And now in North America it seems maybe in Canada 🇨🇦 (likely source of Boston case) and in US. See thread 🧵 for full details. 👇
3) The department did not say where in Canada the man travelled to or when. Contact tracing is ongoing.
➡️However, Dr. Don Vinh, a microbiologist at McGill University in Montreal, told Global News he was aware of **at least seven suspected cases of the virus, all in Montreal**.
Crap—Monkeypox is likely aerosol airborne. Study indicates monkeypox is aerosol stable for up to 90 HOURS and remain infective during that time. I pray we’ve learned our lesson with #COVIDisAirborne and don’t repeat the droplet vs airborne 2 year nonsense. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
2) to be clear, this is a study done in an artificial chamber with device that can aerosolize virus particles. It simulates respiratory aerosols but not “real world” per se. But we should take PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE- just like we should have from the beginning with coronavirus.
3) why all the talk about #monkeypox? Well the CDC and the UK health agencies are worried about an expanding outbreak in Europe. It’s community transmission now— and they can’t link all the cases together. See thread 🧵 below 👇
MONKEYPOX outbreak in UK, Portugal, Spain—CDC is very worried about transmission & warning that the UK outbreak could spread—Portugal & Spain also likely outbreak. #Monkeypox is fatal in ~1 in 10 cases, with severe disease & death more likely among kids.🧵 statnews.com/2022/05/17/cdc…
2) Portugal has confirmed 5 monkey pox cases with 15 more suspected. Spain suspects 8 cases and counting. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
3) “We do have a level of concern that this is very different than what we typically think of from monkeypox. And I think we have some concern that there could be spread outside the U.K associated with this,” Jennifer McQuiston, a senior CDC official, told STAT in an interview.
Whoa—@bankofengland just warned that deep concern of surging #LongCovid is taking workers out of the workforce. The spike ⬆️ in workers age 16-64 who do not work because of long term illness during the #COVID pandemic is alarming, and fast increasing. Mass infection depravity.🧵
2) “Since Q4-19, the number of people aged 16-64 years that are outside the workforce and do not want a job has risen by 525,000 (1.3% of the 16-64 age population). This **largely reflects increases in long-term sickness** (roughly 320,000 people) and retirement (90,000),
3) “The share of the 16-64 who are outside the workforce and do not want a job because of long-term sickness is a record high, with an especially sharp rise among women—much of this rise in inactivity due to long-term sickness reflects side effects of the pandemic, eg Long Covid”
📍REINFECTIONS—Many variants have evolved to partially dodge immunity. Waves of reinfections—2-3 times/year may be the future of #COVID19 scientists now fear (& warned since 2020). I’m old enough to remember when others claimed reinfections impossible/rare.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/hea…
2) The central problem is that the coronavirus has become more adept at reinfecting people. Already, those infected with the first Omicron variant are reporting second infections with the newer versions of the variant — BA.2 or BA2.12.1 in the United States, or BA.4 and BA.5.
3) Those people may go on to have third or fourth infections, even within this year, researchers said in interviews. And some small fraction may have symptoms that persist for months or years, a condition known as long Covid.