Still, experts say, there is evidence that children aged 10 and older are able to transmit SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, at rates similar to adults, and a recent study found that children can carry high levels of the virus in their noses and throats. Trump - have sought to downplay the potential for serious risks to children, amid roiling debates over school reopening. In light of those milder effects, some government officials - including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and President Donald J. “It would be great,” he said, “if someone would be able to systematically look at it.”Ĭ hildren typically experience a more mild version of Covid-19 than adults, and severe complications, hospitalizations, and deaths seem to be extremely rare. While there are some studies underway looking at children who have been hospitalized with severe inflammatory responses, O’Leary said he is not aware of anyone researching long-haul kids who have stayed at home with less severe symptoms. “It does seem to be a real phenomenon that it may be happening in kids,” he said. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and vice chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), has been hearing reports trickle in of kids who haven’t recovered. Instead, suspecting anything from anxiety to diet to constipation, they view each ongoing symptom as unrelated to all the others.īut some researchers and physicians, while acknowledging the scientific uncertainty that still surrounds Covid-19, are concerned. Many parents report that pediatricians, initially convinced the symptoms are caused by Covid-19, grow more skeptical as the weeks progress. Those kids range in age from 17 years down to just 9 months old. Since July, Undark has been in touch with 28 families who report that their children, while not seriously ill, are stuck in a kind of limbo state. While most attention to long-haulers has focused on the experience of adults - who, in general, tend to experience worse effects from Covid-19 than children - the support groups have also attracted a stream of parents who say their kids aren’t getting better, either. Sometimes dismissed or doubted by their doctors, people identifying themselves as long-haulers have formed support groups online, and they have become the subject of some research, including monitoring at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. In recent months, news media and researchers have begun to focus on the phenomenon of self-described Covid-19 long-haulers - people whose symptoms last for months after they are infected. Mahler is not the only parent to report lingering symptoms from a suspected or confirmed Covid-19 infection. Jake, there’s nothing wrong with you and there’s nothing wrong with your mommy,’” Mahler recounted. “She said, ‘Just stop taking his temperature. Concerned, she even sent them dinner one night.īut as their recovery dragged on, Mahler said, the symptoms continued and the support stopped. Every two or three days, the pediatrician called to check-in. Mahler’s own test came back negative, but her doctor said it was probably a false negative, and the pediatrician confirmed Jake had something viral that was highly likely to be Covid-19, too. It was, ‘You have it for two weeks and you’re better.’”Īt first, Mahler said, Jake's pediatrician believed them. “We weren’t hearing about any of these stories right at the time. “Never in a million years could I imagine that four months later our bodies are still trying to recover,” said Mahler, whose own Covid-19 symptoms began about five days before her son’s, and have persisted since. Now, four and a half months since he first got sick, Mahler says that Jake is still experiencing Covid-19 symptoms: exhaustion, intermittent low-grade fevers, sore throat, coughing, enlarged lymph nodes, painful limbs, insomnia, and mysterious splotchy skin that comes and goes. When he finally went four days without a fever by the middle of the month, Mahler thought it was over. Jake’s symptoms stretched into early May. An aerospace engineer in Clear Lake, Texas, Mahler is used to putting puzzle pieces together and taking a calm, cool-headed approach to problems. When 7-year-old Jake Mahler began showing symptoms of Covid-19 in mid-April, his mother, Cindy Mahler, stayed calm.
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