With the school year quickly approaching, Doctors Manitoba held a town hall last night to answer questions that parents and teachers might have about COVID-19.
The Back-To-School COVID-19 Town Hall was hosted by Director of Strategy and Communications, Keir Johnson.
The expert panel of physicians included
- Marni Hanna, President of the Manitoba Pediatric Society
- Ruth Grimes, President of the Canadian Paediatric Society
- Jared Bullard, pediatric infectious disease specialist
- Ashley Chopek, pediatric oncology and bone marrow transplant specialist
- Andrew Hall, child and adolescent psychiatrist
- Melanie Morris, pediatric general surgeon and Indigenous health lead at Children's Hospital
Dr. Bullard talked about the level of risk for school-aged children.
“15 thousand kids have been infected with COVID out of the three waves that we’ve had so far. Out of those, about one in 200 ended up in the hospital, about one in a thousand ended up getting multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), and children in the ICU is about one in 2 thousand so not many kids making it there, and when they do typically it’s with MIS-C and all of those that have had MIS-C have done really well.”
Bullard also talked about the Delta variant in children.
“Yes, children are more likely to be infected with this, but the hospitalization rate might not be as severe as they initially anticipating.”
Dr. Grimes talked about the long-term effects of COVID-19 in children.
She says a lot of questions about this topic have yet to be answered.
“I can certainly speak to the fact that the Canadian Pediatric Society is collecting data in real-time to address questions about what the long-term effects of COVID symptoms are in children.”
Another toping discussed was at-risk children, which Dr. Hanna touched upon.
“We are still concerned about all children not just those with pre-existing conditions, but in particular, if children have conditions that affect their lung function, cardiac conditions, or conditions suppress their immune function, those are the big ones that make us more worried about their vulnerability to COVID infection.”
She added that getting vaccinated if you’re eligible is a good way to protect children, as they can’t get vaccinated themselves.
