9 Comments

Would young children who have Down Syndrome but no other comorbidities be classified as a child with a medical comorbidity? Or are they considered to have a severe neurological impairment? (My thought would be no, but I’m biased as all get out on the subject.)

I know it’s a terribly specific question, but here in the U.S., the risk of Covid to Down Syndrome children has basically been answered with, “We don’t know, but probably, so never leave your house and definitely mask your two-year-old.”

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Thanks for the question. Children with Down syndrome are definitely recognised to be much higher risk of severe illness from Covid-19 than children of an equivalent age without Down syndrome, and vaccination is definitely recommended.

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Thank you so much for your reply. I feel like I’ve been waiting for over two years for a definitive reply to that question. I really appreciate your honesty and transparency.

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The US had approved a third shot for the 5-11 demographic a couple months back. Since that cohort has the lowest inherent risk, is there a rationale based upon outcome that justifies a third dose for children without comorbidity? I acknowledge the short term increases to antibodies and the increased diversity of T cells with a third dose, but do those elements changes the outcome related to severity, duration, MIS-C, PASC, etc?

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Good article, thank you! Are there any prophylactics you would recommend in lieu of vaccination for high-risk children?

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Jun 21, 2022
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So we have 2 years of data on Covid for children, what data do we have on the safety of the vaccine on children for short, medium and long term? Worth the risk? Data verse no data?

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Jun 20, 2022Edited
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Jun 20, 2022
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Actually this is incorrect. The study and this post examine rates per infection, as clearly stated. It remains relevant today. Thanks.

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Jun 21, 2022
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You are confusing infection fatality rate with case fatality rate.

If you read the study methodology you will note the denominator is not cases, it is estimated total infections based on the MRC nowcasting model which has many inputs including the ONS infection survey. This metric is consistent over the study period.

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Thank you for the informative data review. My question would be- would it be correct to assume the whole underage population was exposed to the virus and those not infected and thus not figuring into the ifr, can supposedly sport a very robust immune or some other (possibly genetic) factor that protects them? If do, wouldn't that impact the r/b ratio for child/adolescent vaccination, since the benefit would be rather lower than the 0.2/100.000 they arrived at for underaged without comorbidities?

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