UK Government Dashboard
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
#FactCheck Us
From as early as January 2020 the UK was reassured that children didn't catch Covid-19, they didn't appear to transmit it and they certainly didn't become sick or die. This false narrative is now embedded into the heart of communities, research has been slow and this myth continues along with handwashing being best defense.
Since early on in 2020 Long Covid Kids founders have been removing adult data to analyze the affect of the pandemic on and between children. The fallacy of relative privation asserts that if something is worse than the problem currently being discussed, then the problem being discussed isn't really of importance at all. Comparing adult with child data has led to exactly this and the harm caused to children from Covid-19 infection has been largely brushed aside - reference to it usually branded 'scaremongering'.
Almost two years on we are now a charity and continue to focus on the health and wellbeing of children affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. By removing over 18's data from that provided by the Government Dashboard, The UK Health Security Agency and The Office for National Statistics we ensure that see child specific official statistics and graphs. Our charity goes one step further and looks at Covid-19 vaccine data for children as well as flu and RSV rates too. These will be added to our website soon.
Unvaccinated 5-9 year old children in schools have the highest and fastest growing rates
Cases have doubled since December
No incidental hospital admission % for UK yet
No hospital discharge outcome data available
Asthma classed as pre-existing condition
Infections in school aged children
1 in 13 children aged 5-11 years old are infected with Covid-19
Two thirds of those who tested positive in January have previously had the virus
1 in 8 children were absent from school in England last Thursday
REACT 1 Data 26th January 22
Cases are higher and rose faster in households with children
Dashboard case numbers do not include children who have been re-infected (Except Wales). UKHSA is working on including reinfections by the end of January 2022.
Quote from Chair of British Paediatric Surveillance Unit, January 14th 2022. "With high heterogeneity (99%) children can transmit #SARSCoV2 just like adults"
Child Covid-19 Hospital Admissions
Excludes RSV which uses a separate test
"NHS England conducted a very rapid evaluation of around
50 admissions of babies with Omicron across around 33 hospitals. For context we are currently hospitalising 500+ under 5's per week with Covid-19.
Are these youngsters being infected by their school aged siblings?"
James Neill, LCK Data Analyst
Official data shows that child Covid-19 hospital admissions are higher than RSV
60% of child admissions list Covid-19 as the primary reason (New York State analysis of Omicron, January 2022). No figure for UK as yet
There is more than double the rate of child Covid-19 hospital admissions than in former waves
7.4% of all Covid-19 hospital admissions are children
There is no official information available regarding the discharge outcomes for these children. How many go on to receive care under a GP or paediatrician? For how long?
Government research shows that 80% of Alpha to Delta admissions are directly due to Covid-19 and 60% of those have no underlaying conditions
Underlaying Conditions
1.1 million children are asthmatic
41 000 children are diabetic
700 000 have autism
20% of children have eczema
Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome
These hospital admissions are IN ADDITION to COVID-19 admissions
These children are usually admitted after the 14-day testing cut-off
There were 720 PIMs admissions to the end of February 2021
Almost half of children in hospital, and a third with the late severe complication of PIMS-TS, had no underlaying health conditions
A quarter of children hospitalised for COVID-19 experience persistent symptoms on average 8.5 months after hospitalisation
Since PIMs typically appears 4-6 weeks after infection we have yet to see the scale of PIM's hospital admissions in children.
Paediatric Deaths
Click image to read article regarding the misinformation reported in the Smith et al Nature Medicine paper on child deaths in England up to February 2021. Findings from this paper have been widely reported in mainstream media which have stated "only 6 healthy children" have died from Covid-19. This is not true, as evidenced.
Using population rates is misleading.
Led by Tom Lawton with input from three of our own Long Covid Kids supporters and experts, Dr Deepti Gurdasani, Dr Stephen Griffin and LCK Data Analyst, James Neill.
48% of paediatic deaths since "Freedom Day' (ONS, England & Wales)
136 UK paediatric deaths following a positive Covid-19 test (UKHSA, 28 days, 0-19 years) as of 10th February 2022
1 in 23 deaths of 5-19 year olds involved Covid-19 (ONS) Sept-Dec 2021
Covid-19 is a significant cause of death for 5-19 year olds in 2021 (ONS)
88% of the child deaths in wave 3 had CV19 as the underlying cause of death, (not due to pre-existing conditions. ONS)
Is Covid-19 like flu?
No.
An average of 18.3 children die per year in England due to flu.
Vaccines Work
Long Covid
Mechanisms of Long Covid in Children and Adults
The NIHR second themed review on Long Covid states there may be grounds to understand Long Covid as up to 4 syndromes with different underlying causes and treatment needs.
These could include;
● Long Term Organ Damage
● Post Viral Syndrome
● Post ICU Syndrome
And potentially an entirely novel syndrome separate from the others that could more specifically and uniquely be identified as "Long Covid".
How common is Long Covid in Children?
Sadly mainstream media have long minimised Long Covid and usually choose the lowest prevalence figure published despite experts raising concern about the methodology gaps used in the research.
It is apparent that Long Covid is the legacy of this novel neurotropic virus. Prevalence estimates vary depending on the chosen methodology including;
● The symptoms the researchers choose to study
● The number of symptoms
● The symptom duration
● The case ascertainments
● The population representativeness
● Definitions of relapsing and remitting symptoms
● Use of a control group and how robust the control group is
Until we have a worldwide agreed definition for paediatric Long Covid and formally count prevalence, the scale of the burden will always remain unclear.
"If we take the lowest estimate for Long Covid of just 1%,
at least 5, 320 children in January alone will suffer persisting symptoms. Both the mechanism of what is causing them and their long term consequences remain unclear"
Long Covid Kids, 26th January 2022
There is now a World Health Organisation agreed definition for Long Covid in adults. Long Covid Kids are participating in the process for a definition for children as part of the CLOCK study.
"I challenge those who rubbish self-reporting of Long Covid. I say, there's no better way in the absence of a valid and reliable biomarker or specific imaging finding.
As a general rule, believe what people tell you
about the difference in their own bodies before and after infection"
Long Covid Kids Champion, Dr Nisreen Alwan
In the UK we are lucky in that we benefit from the ONS prevalence estimates which currently indicate that 117,000 children and young people are living with Long Covid; 20,000 of whom are still experiencing symptoms after 12 months. It is pertinent to note that anecdotal evidence indicates symptom duration is continuing from first wave infections to date.
United States of America
“One year after becoming ill w/ the coronavirus, nearly half of patients in a large study were still experiencing at least one lingering health symptom”
The CDC stated nearly half of infected children were experiencing Long Covid, and early research stated 43%.
Latest ONS Long Covid Figures
Age 2 - 11 yrs** Age 12 - 16 yrs**
4+ weeks 117, 000 children 1 in 185* 1 in 54*
12 weeks 49 000 children 1 in 470* 1 in 122*
12+ months 20 000 children 1 in 800* 1 in 380*
* Approximates
** Includes all children of these ages, not just those infected
1 in 7 children (14%) infected with COVID-19 suffer Long Covid
Blogs
Recent Long Covid Research Explained, 15th January 2022 by Dr Deepti Gurdasani
Long Covid in Teaching & Education Staff (ONS)
Education is now the second worst employment sector for suffering Long Covid after social care.
Monthly Child Covid Summary
Month Cases Admissions Deaths Long Covid
0-19 yrs 0-17 yrs 0-19 yrs 28-day
July 271,344 1,153 5 34,000
August 203,122 1,229 7 38,000
September 328,697 1,078 10 53,000
October 442,841 1,228 12 69,000
November 372,589 1,087 6 77,000
December 548,289 1,969 TBC 114, 000
ONS
UK Dashboard
Next release 3rd February 2022
Interactive Dashboard with Children's Covid-19 Data
Click image to enter site
Image dated 24th January 2022.
When community COVID-19 transmission is high:
Education disruption occurs;
Child Covid hospital admissions rise;
The number of children suffering Long Covid/chronic illness increases;
More children die
Our Charity Provides Facts
Sources and Contact Details
Admissions
Cases
Deaths
Data Analysis, graphs and statistics
Data
Collated and reported by Ellie Tigress
Contact Ellie @TigressEllie
Interactive dashboard and stats
By Antonio Caramia
Contact Antonio @Antonio_Caramia
Compiled by LCK Founding Member Nathalie Pearson
Long Covid Kids & Friends is a UK based international charity (Charity Number: 1196170) supporting and advocating for families, children and young people living with Long Covid. Our story started with a short film on the long-lasting symptoms of Covid in children.
Each Sunday we send out a newsletter providing a weekly round-up of statistics, the latest reports in the media, current research, and LCK news. Read previous issues and SIGN UP
Long Covid Kids & Friends is run by volunteers. Your donation and social media shares enable us to support families worldwide.
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