The theory that children may be immune to COVID-19 is not true, according to health officials who have examined cases of children across the country who were treated for the illness.
Rutgers University-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Dr. Lawrence Kleinman authored the findings. Kleinman also works as a physician at Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital. He says that he examined 48 children around the country who were admitted to the intensive care unit. The patients ranged in age from newborn to 21 years old.
Kleinman says that in many cases, those with underlying health issues became sick.
“Forty of the 48 had underlying conditions, many of which were as simple as obesity,” Kleinman says.
But Kleinman says that the eight other patients were all healthy before getting the virus. He says that this study reinforces the decision to close schools in New Jersey and throughout the country. He says that parents should not think that their children do not need to practice social distancing.
“Groups are not safe. Groups of children from different families is not a safe approach,” he says. “So, I have a hard time seeing how school rooms would be safe.”
Kleinman is also working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Boston Children’s Hospital to study a new illness affecting children that is believed to be in some way connected to coronavirus. That illness resembles Kawasaki Disease and is described as an inflammation of the organs and arteries.
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This illness has taken the life of a 4-year-old in New Jersey and three more children in New York. Also in New York, dozens are sick.
Symptoms include a rash, fever and abdominal pain.
“Many of them are not having the respiratory symptoms initially associated with COVID-19,” says Kleinman. “Some of them are having abdominal symptoms and others are presenting with inflammation.”
The New Jersey Department of Health is now attempting to track these cases.