The Covid pandemic has been starkly different than the flu, doctors say. And that was before the delta variant swept through the country.
For the past three decades, Dr. Toni Darville has treated some of the sickest children suffering from viral illnesses — especially the flu.
"I've seen a lot of kids become extremely ill after influenza," said Darville, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina Children's Research Institute. Some have developed pneumonia. Others needed to be placed on machines called ECMO to help their damaged heart and lungs heal.But the Covid-19 pandemic has been different.
"There are more differences between the seasonal flu and Covid-19 than there are similarities," Dr. Kavita Patel, a primary care physician in Washington, D.C., and a former health policy director under President Barack Obama, said on NBC's"Nightly News" this week. Influenza is well-understood, while the virus that causes Covid has been known to humanity for less than two years. Questions remain about how to best treat kids who are seriously ill with Covid, and about whether they’ll develop lasting problems related to the virus.
Flu shots are widely available to all kids, while no Covid vaccines have been authorized for children under 12. More than half of children — 60 percent — get their flu shot each year, which doctors say helps prevent hospitalization and death. The vast majority of kids who die from the flu are unvaccinated., which swept through the country in July and now accounts for more than 90 percent of new cases.
México Últimas Noticias, México Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients share why they changed their minds about the shotUnvaccinated Americans suffering from COVID-19 share their stories and why they changed their mind about the shot.
Leer más »
Arizona Doctor Slams Mask Mandate Ban After Her Child Was Exposed To COVID“We have sacrificed so much for you over the past 18 months. And it took only 3 days for you to destroy one of the last things I was hanging on to - the ability to keep my kids safe.'
Leer más »
Facebook says Russia-linked ad agency tried to smear Covid vaccinesFacebook says it has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a mysterious advertising agency operating out of Russia that sought to pay social media influencers to smear Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Leer más »
Hospitals run low on nurses as they get swamped with COVIDThe rapidly escalating surge in COVID-19 infections across the U.S. has caused a shortage of nurses and other front-line staff in virus hotspots that can no longer keep up with the flood of unvaccinated patients and are losing workers to burnout and lucrative out-of-state temporary gigs.
Leer más »
COVID Vaccine Hesitancy: 90 Million Still On the FenceWhile some of these still unvaccinated people may actually be hesitant -- that is, they have serious questions about the safety or effectiveness of the vaccines -- many just outright refuse to get vaccinated.
Leer más »
What we know and don't know about the COVID vaccine timeline for children under 12As the delta variant spreads, demand has skyrocketed for FDA authorization of a vaccine for children under 12, who are not yet eligible.
Leer más »