CNN
—
Covid-19 is the eighth leading cause of death among children in the United States, according to. the study Published Monday.
Children are significantly less likely to die from Covid-19 than any other age group, according to the federal government, with less than 1% of all deaths since the pandemic began in people under the age of 18. dataCovid-19 is the third leading cause of death in the broader population.
But children rarely die for any reason, the researchers write, so the burden of Covid-19 is best understood in relation to other childhood deaths.
“Childhood deaths are nothing new. Chairman Sean O’Leary, Ph.D.
“We all know that the new coronavirus is most severe in the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, and less severe in children, but that does not mean it is a benign disease for children. Just because they have very few children doesn’t mean they aren’t influential.”
In 2019, pre-pandemic, the leading causes of death for children and young adults aged 0-19 years included perinatal conditions, unintentional injury, congenital malformations or malformations, assault, suicide, and malignant neoplasms. , heart disease, influenza, pneumonia.
Researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found that there were 821 Covid-19 deaths in this age group in the 12-month period from August 2021 to July 2022. rice field. Its mortality rate is about 1 per 100,000 people. Children aged 0-19 – Ranked 8th compared to 2019 data. Among young people aged 15 to her 19, he ranks fifth.
Deaths from Covid-19 have replaced influenza and pneumonia as the leading cause of death from infectious and respiratory diseases. It caused “substantially” more deaths than any vaccine-preventable disease historically, the researchers wrote.
According to the CDC data, children are less vaccinated for Covid-19 than any other age group in the United States. Fewer than 10% of her eligible children have had a current booster, and more than 90% of her children under 5 years of age have not been fully immunized.
“We looked at all the other major causes of death, whether it was car accidents or childhood cancer, and we said, ‘Well, if only there was an easy and safe way to get rid of one of them.’ O’Leary, who is also a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Colorado, is making it happen with Covid with vaccines.
CDC Research blood samples suggest that more than 90% of children have already been infected with Covid-19 at least once.
O’Leary said there is uncertainty about how much risk the virus will continue to pose, but the potential benefits of vaccination clearly outweigh the potential risks.
“Vaccination is clearly the best option at the moment, and the benefits clearly outweigh the risks,” he said. “A cane to avoid falling.”
The results of a new study, presented at JAMA Network Open, focus on deaths where Covid-19 is the underlying cause of death, but not those that it may have contributed to, suggesting that Covid-19 We may have underestimated the mortality burden of -19. the researcher writes. And other analyzes of excess mortality suggest that Covid-19 deaths are underreported.
As Covid-19 continues to spread in the United States, researchers say interventions such as vaccination and ventilation “will continue to play a critical role in limiting transmission of the virus and mitigating severe illness.” says.
