1 in every 100 children
now suffer from Long Covid
🌷Nathalie Elodie #HealthySchools

🔥Dr Rae Duncan (Rae) does not hold back in this thread.

She is angry.

Day in, day out, she sees first hand the impact that repeated Covid infections are having on our children.

If you’re a parent, YOU should be angry too.

I know I am.

Our children deserve better.

If, before Covid, a cardiac care doctor saw 100 patients in a week, then Covid increased the number of people needing cardiac care, the doctor would still only be seeing 100 patients a week now.
Because the need has increased, but the doctor's time capacity hasn't.
See?

Try thinking about it like this: there are three stages of Long Covid:

Maria Van Kerkhove, World Health Organisation (Jan 2024):

“5 years from now,
10 years from now,
20 years from now,
what are we going
to see in terms of
CARDIAC impairment,
PULMONARY impairment,
NEUROLOGICAL impairment?'

This is an important message.

Are you paying attention?

pay attention ⏬🚀

By popular request, here’s a new version of the 1st chart with March 2023 included.

Note: Data from March 2023 was UK data whereas the latest data is 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 only. To present comparable data, I’ve extrapolated 92% of the UK-wide figures since 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 represent 92% of the UK pop.

Thank you to Cat in the Hat 🐈‍⬛ 🎩 🇬🇧 for making this simple graphic to display the problem we have here in England.
We don't have a sicknote culture.
We have sick children.
The number of kids with Long Covid has nearly doubled in a year.
GOVERNMENT DATA:

Mark my words: we are entering another SARS2 wave. I’m an occupational physician trained to see patterns at work. Looks like 1st wave-large nos people coming to work with virus-rolling around in fits of coughing, faints/collapsing, grey with nausea.1/

This graph captures in a nutshell, everything we can and should do to reduce #COVID19 infection and re-infection
#Maskup in healthcare settings and mandate #IAQ measures to keep C02 levels below 800ppm

So why are our leaders silent on this???
The BMA The RCN NHS England RCGP

If the government is serious about wanting to address the school attendance crisis, then they need to be looking at ways to reduce the spread of illness in schools.

And that means telling sick kids to stay home and also improving VENTILATION & AIR FILTRATION in classrooms.

And no, this is absolutely NOT normal.

Pre-pandemic, the average illness absence rate was about 2.5%.

Across the 2022/23 academic year, the illness absence rate was 3.7%.

That’s nearly 50% higher than pre-pandemic!

…and so far this academic year, it’s STILL at 3.7%.

And then there’s the fact that the Covid infections themselves can create lasting differences in some people's immune systems which leaves them more susceptible to other diseases like RSV.

This may well be part of the reason we’re seeing a rapid rise in so many other illnesses.

And yet, the government’s latest attendance drive actively encourages parents to send sick children to school, unless they have a fever.

But, as the ONS data clearly shows, around 75% of children who are infectious with Covid will NOT have a fever!

Another useful insight from the ONS data is prevalence of various symptoms amongst children who tested positive.

The most common symptoms for those with Covid were:
▪️runny nose: 82%
▪️cough: 71%

Fever was far less common, reported in just 25% of children who tested positive.

The aspect I’m most concerned about is the long-term damage which Covid can cause to the brain.

We now know that Covid infection can lead to a plethora of new neurological symptoms, including confusion, difficulty concentrating, memory problems, depression & anxiety.

Previous ONS studies have shown that children are JUST AS LIKELY to develop Long Covid after their 2nd infection as those infected for the 1st time.

Just because they’ve had Covid once & were fine, it doesn’t mean they’ll be fine the next time…

ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…

In fact, prevalence of Long Covid in children is now significantly higher than a year ago, in March 2023, when it was last reported.

At that time, 62,000 children were suffering from Long Covid…

… and that was UK-wide data whereas today’s new figures are for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 only.

One thing jumps out at me from this chart is:

➡️ 30% of people with Long Covid have been suffering for LESS than a year.

In other words, these are NEW cases that have arisen since the last ONS Long Covid report in March 2023.

▪️111,816 children (aged 3-17 yrs) were estimated to be suffering from Long Covid during the 4 week period ending 7 Mar 2024 (England & Scotland).

▪️Over 20,000 of these kids with Long Covid reported that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited A LOT.