Tag: children

Published by: STAT
Published on: June 26, 2025
By Jen Brull, Susan J. Kressly, Jason Goldman, Steven J. Fleischman, Tina Q. Tan

The authors are the presidents of American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Let us introduce ourselves. We are the doctors you trust with your health and the health of your family across every stage of life, from the first checkups in infancy and childhood, to health care during pregnancy and adulthood, through management of chronic illness and aging. We are family physicians, pediatricians, internal medicine physicians, OB-GYNs, and infectious disease experts. Our commitment is not to politics, but to the absolute well-being of our patients and populations, and to providing them with best evidence-based health care.

We have an urgent, united message: Immunizations work, they are very effective and safe, and they save lives. Vaccines are among the most rigorously studied and effective tools in public health. Through widespread immunization, we have eradicated debilitating and fatal diseases that once caused serious illness, hospitalization, and death for millions of people.

But today, that legacy is at serious risk.

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vaccines

Childhood vaccines were a global success story. Misinformation and other obstacles are slowing that progress, a study shows

Published June 25, 2025

Published by: CNN
Published on: June 25, 2025
By Jen Christensen

Routine vaccines have prevented the deaths of about 154 million children around the world over the past 50 years, a new study shows, but efforts have been slowing recently, allowing for the growth of some vaccine-preventable diseases. This backslide could lead to many more unnecessary illnesses and deaths without an increased effort to vaccinate children and counter misinformation.

The report, published Tuesday in the medical journal The Lancet, says that over the past five decades, the World Health Organization’s Expanded Programme on Immunization has vaccinated more than 4 billion children. This doubling of global coverage of vaccines has prevented countless cases of tuberculosis, measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.

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Alberta

UCP’s COVID vaccine cuts put children at serious risk

Published June 16, 2025

Published by: Edmonton Journal
Published on: June 16, 2025
By Blake Murdoch

On May 27, the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics published a patient information page about Long COVID in children. It states “Long COVID is common, affecting up to 10 per cent to 20 per cent of children with a history of COVID-19. With almost six million U.S. children potentially affected, this is higher than the number of children with asthma, the most common chronic health problem in children.”

Two weeks later on June 13, Danielle Smith’s UCP, famously fans of the anti-science Trump government, highlighted horrifically unscientific new FDA guidance suggesting healthy children and pregnant women are not recommended for COVID vaccination, while announcing a new policy where most Albertans have to pay for immunization.

Beyond the obvious inequities and loss of access that payment for prophylaxis presents, the UCP introduced a new four-phase rollout plan whereby those under age 65 without qualifying conditions cannot be vaccinated until the final phase. This means kids will likely head back to schools months before they are eligible for vaccination, ensuring they are exposed to the latest COVID strains before becoming eligible for updated vaccination. It also leaves the UCP an opening to not buy pediatric vaccines at all and claim “low demand.”

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British Columbia

BC Won’t Require Measles Vaccination for Schools

Published May 29, 2025

Published by: The Tyee
Published on: May 29, 2025
By Michelle Gamage

Canada is in the middle of the largest measles outbreak it has seen in generations, with 2,515 cases so far this year as of May 17, which is the most recent data reported by Health Canada as of Monday.

Despite the spread of the disease B.C. is not considering making measles immunization mandatory for attending school, as it is in Ontario and New Brunswick, the Health Ministry told The Tyee in an emailed statement.

“There is no requirement from the province for students to be vaccinated to attend school, or that students’ immunization records be provided as part of school registration,” the ministry said.

Instead its strategy is mostly a reactive one, where it will use data to respond to outbreaks and exposures. B.C. will also encourage people to get vaccinated and will open school-based immunization clinics in some areas with low vaccination rates.

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kakistocracy

Doctors fear ‘devastating consequences’ for pregnant people after RFK Jr order on Covid-19 boosters

Published May 28, 2025

Published by: The Guardian
Published on: May 28, 2025
By Jessica Glenza

Kennedy’s unilateral decision to change the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for Covid-19 vaccines demonstrates once again why he is completely unqualified to be the HHS secretary.

In Congressional testimony on May 14, Kennedy said, ‘I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me.’ Yet two weeks later he is making arbitrary public health decisions, defying norms, and with no accountability.

— Dr Robert Steinbrook, research director at consumer rights group Public Citizen

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kakistocracy

RFK Jr says no COVID vaccines for healthy children, pregnant women

Published May 27, 2025

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: May 27, 2025
By Stephanie Soucheray

Today Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made another sweeping change to the US vaccine landscape, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed its recommendation of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that, as of today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant woman has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule,” Kennedy said in a video message, flanked by Martin Makary, MD, MPH, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health.

The move comes just 1 week after the FDA announced—via an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine—that the vaccine would now be offered only to adults 65 years and older or those with underlying conditions that made them vulnerable to severe COVID-19.

Today’s video message is short and direct but is already causing confusion, as pregnancy itself is considered a risk factor for severe COVID-19.

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pro-virus policies

RFK Jr. eyes reversing CDC’s Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for children

Published April 22, 2025

Published by: Politico
Published on: April 22, 2025
By Adam Cancryn

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is weighing pulling the Covid-19 vaccine from the government’s list of recommended immunizations for children, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.

The directive under consideration would remove the Covid shot from the childhood vaccine schedule maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and widely used by physicians to guide vaccine distribution, marking Kennedy’s most significant move yet to shake up the nation’s vaccination practices.

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long COVID

Imaging shows significant lung injury in kids with long COVID

Published February 26, 2025

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: February 26, 2025
By Stephanie Soucheray

Children and teens with long COVID have significant lung abnormalities detected with an advanced form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), called free-breathing phase-resolved functional lung (PREFUL) MRI. The findings were published yesterday in Radiology.

Though chest scans are used to diagnose and monitor lung function of adults with long COVID, they are less commonly used on children with persistent symptoms after COVID-19, which is also called post-COVID condition (PCC). Lung perfusion, or how blood flows in and out of the lungs, can thus be hard to detect in pediatric patients.

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long COVID

Vaccinated kids at 57% to 73% lower risk of long COVID, CDC study suggests

Published February 25, 2025

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: February 25, 2025
By Mary Van Beusekom

mRNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 was tied to a 57% and 73% lower risk of having at least one or two long-COVID symptoms, respectively, in US children ages 5 to 17 years, according to a case-control study led by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The four-site study involved 622 children who were eligible for COVID-19 vaccination when they were infected with the Omicron variant and who completed a post-COVID condition (PCC) survey at least 60 days later. They were enrolled from the Pediatric Research Observing Trends and Exposures in COVID-19 Timelines (PROTECT) study, a longitudinal SARS-CoV-2 surveillance cohort convened in July 2021.

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long COVID

Lung abnormalities seen in children and teens with long COVID

Published February 25, 2025

Published by: Radiological Society of North America
Published on: February 25, 2025

OAK BROOK, Ill. – An advanced type of MRI uncovers significant lung abnormalities in children and adolescents with long COVID, according to a new study published today in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Post-COVID-19 condition, commonly known as long COVID, can affect individuals of all ages and is diagnosed when symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks after an initial COVID-19 infection. Children and adolescents typically experience a milder form of the condition, but common symptoms such as chronic fatigue, headaches and poor concentration can negatively impact school performance and social activities.

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long COVID

Revolutionary AI Blood Test Detects Long COVID in Children With 93% Accuracy

Published January 24, 2025

Published by: SciTechDaily
Published on: January 24, 2025
By Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Researchers have discovered a molecular signature of Long Covid in children, detectable through a blood test and diagnosable with 93% accuracy using AI.

This breakthrough signifies a major advancement in pediatric healthcare, offering hope for early detection and tailored treatments.

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long COVID

The pandemic’s untold fertility story

Published December 28, 2024

Published by: ABC News
Published on: December 29, 2024
By Hayley Gleeson

Long COVID is snuffing out some patients’ dreams of having children, sharpening the pain of loss, grief and medical neglect.

When Melanie Broadley and her husband started going out in 2019, like many couples their age they decided to put “starting a family” on the shelf for a few years so they could focus on their careers. A postdoctoral researcher who studies diabetes and psychology, Broadley was 28 and in good health — she had plenty of time, she reasoned. Then, in 2022, she caught SARS-CoV-2 and developed long COVID, blowing up her life as she knew it and, for now at least, her hopes of having a baby.

“I became totally disabled by long COVID,” says Broadley, 34, who lives at her parents’ house in Brisbane. On a good day she struggles with debilitating fatigue that worsens after any kind of physical or mental activity, an autonomic nervous system disorder called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which causes her heart rate to spike when she stands up, cognitive dysfunction that means she can’t read or write for more than 10 minutes at a time, and an immune disorder, called mast cell activation syndrome, that triggers allergic reactions. Even though she’s been doing everything she can to recover, she’s still too unwell to cope with a potential pregnancy.

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long COVID

What It’s Like to Have Long COVID As a Kid

Published November 4, 2024

Published by: Time
Published on: November 4, 2024
By Alana Kaufman

It started when my brain gave out on me in algebra class one January day in 2022. I couldn’t figure out a simple math problem; all I saw were numbers and symbols. My eyelids drooped, my head hurt, I could barely stay awake. Something wasn’t right.

I hadn’t felt like myself since getting COVID-19 a couple weeks earlier. Simple tasks like reading a text or standing up were draining. But what happened in that classroom scared me. At age 14, my life became a state of constant exhaustion, punctuated by doctors’ visits that, months later, would lead to a Long COVID diagnosis. Still, in those early weeks, I felt determined. I was a high-achieving student athlete always eager to accept a challenge—and I felt confident that I could get past whatever this was quickly.

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opinion

Coughing kids, coughing parents. To keep everyone healthy, we have to update our schools

Published October 28, 2024

Published by: Toronto Star
Published on: October 28, 2024
By Sara Ehrhardt

I’m coughing, looking at my plans for the day, cancelling each one.

As an elected official, this is not a good look. We wish to be out and about with people. We certainly don’t want to be coughing all over our constituents in this time of COVID.

But elected officials get sick too.

Like most parents in the community I represent, when I start to feel sick I think back to all the places my family and I have been, and also what plans we have coming up.

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long COVID

Long COVID Is Harming Too Many Kids

Published October 18, 2024

Published by: Scientific American
Published on: October 18, 2024
By Blake Murdoch

Since the COVID pandemic began, claims that the disease poses only minimal risk to children have spread widely, on the presumption that the lower rate of severe acute illness in kids tells the whole story. Notions that children are nearly immune to COVID and don’t need to be vaccinated have pervaded.

These ideas are wrong. People making such claims ignore the accumulating risk of long COVID, the constellation of long-term health effects caused by infection, in children who may get infected once or twice a year. The condition may already have affected nearly six million kids in the U.S. Children need us to wake up to this serious threat. If we do, we can help our kids with a few straightforward and effective measures.

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long COVID

For kids with long COVID, “back to school” often means not returning at all

Published October 6, 2024

Published by: Salon
Published on: October 6, 2024
By Nicole Karlis

In January 2022, Jennifer Robertson’s now 11-year-old son, Fergus, developed long COVID, a condition in which the symptoms of COVID-19 linger for months or even years. Due to his symptoms, he missed nearly six weeks of school after his first infection. He’d be in and out of the classroom for the rest of the school year.

Robertson never knew how her son would feel day to day. After three months of daily fever spikes, red eyes, and chest pains, the family pulled him out of their school to be homeschooled for a year. There was hope when he returned to in-person school last year at a private, and more flexible, school.

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schools

School’s back and so is a COVID-19 surge: Protecting kids and precarious workers

Published August 30, 2024

Published by: The Hamilton Spectator
Published on: August 30, 2024
By Andrew Wilkin

The 2024 school year is beginning amid one of the biggest COVID-19 waves of the pandemic.

One U.S doctor states, “This is a very significant surge. The levels are very high. They’re the highest we’ve ever seen during a summer wave.” It might be hard to think about, but we’re still in a pandemic and experts are warning against COVID-19 complacency in schools.

Dying with COVID-19 in the acute phase may have decreased, but complications from an infection exist — more than 2 million Canadians have “long COVID” (LC). In this context, societies that see themselves as equitable, inclusive and just need to consider if they’re doing the best job protecting their more vulnerable members, like children and many precarious workers. Research shows governments are not doing the best protecting the rights of children in a crisis, and reports from workers indicate some feel abandoned and left to deal with scary health situations, largely on their own. For school staff, students, their families and communities, this all seems quite cruel. It does not need to be this way.

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long COVID

Teens and kids with long COVID are showing surprising new symptoms

Published August 21, 2024

Published by: USA Today
Published on: August 21, 2024
By Adrianna Rodriguez

Rose Lehane Tureen is one busy teenager.

The 16-year-old is class president, an Irish step dance champion, singer, cross-country runner and straight-A student at her high school in Maine.

Her accomplishments belie the reality that she suffers from a debilitating headache that has lasted for more than four years, one of the several long COVID symptoms she’s endured since an infection in March 2020.

At the beginning of her illness, Rose went to the emergency room half a dozen times and was hospitalized twice with dizziness and blinding head pain. She also had red and swollen fingers, toes and ears; peeling skin; joint pain; problems controlling her temperature and terrible dreams.

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