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2 kids using masks in Central Park.
Taidgh Barron/NY Post
A lot of New york city children “probably” currently have coronavirus and are serving as vectors to spread out the illness, according to one New york city pediatrician.
Dr. Dyan Hes at New York City’s Gramercy Pediatrics encouraged parents to assume their kids have the virus if they contract even mild signs consistent with the disease.
” I think that probably 80 percent of the kids have coronavirus. We are not checking kids. I’m in New York City. I can’t get my patients evaluated,” Hes said during an interview at CBS News.
” And we have to presume, if they are sick, they have coronavirus. Most of them, probably 80 to 90 percent of them, are asymptomatic.”
However the number of contaminated children is unidentified since many children don’t display any symptoms, she said– and that might change COVID-19’s mortality rate.
” So, these numbers are so skewed. I believe that the mortality rate is method, method less than 0.5 percent for kids who have it due to the fact that it is so common,” Hes stated.
” You have to remember thousands of kids die from flu a year. This is much, much less virulent in kids.”
The larger risk depends on those infected kids passing the virus to far more vulnerable populations, like the elderly or those with pre-existing health conditions.
” The problem with children is that they are so asymptomatic that they are spreading it. And our most significant error was that we didn’t close the general public schools when we should have,” stated Hes.
” So the children were the vectors to the teachers, who may be elderly or immunocompromised.”
Hes stated moms and dads should just take their children to a doctor for set up vaccine check outs or if they’re displaying shortness of breath.
“[Y] ou just have to keep that kid at home for 14 days.
Children rarely contract extreme health problem from the coronavirus– and may not even display a fever or a cough, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Avoidance from April 6.
Kids make up a small fraction of confirmed US coronavirus cases– 2,572 of the 149,082 cases reported since April 2 for which the client’s age was known, or about 1.7 percent.
But Hes states the true variety of pediatric cases are not understood due to the fact that of the restricted screening readily available and the fairly minor threat to kids.
” We have absolutely no tests for children. We have absolutely no swabs,” she stated.
” I’ve had clients whose parents have COVID, kid has a 102.5 fever. At the start when we were doing this, we were sending them to the ER. They got turned away. They were not evaluated due to the fact that we do not have sufficient tests and the kids are succeeding.”