Doctors warn of growing COVID-19 risks for Idaho kids
Several doctors warned in a media briefing Wednesday that Idaho’s COVID-19 crisis is spilling over, more and more, into children and babies.
“Long COVID” left one child needing a pacemaker, a pediatrician said. Another doctor said she’s seeing an uptick in fetal deaths and stillbirths. A third doctor said babies are delivered prematurely to save the mother’s life. Those babies start their own lives with unexpected complications.
Children age 12 and older can receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for free.
Idaho children have a low per-capita vaccination rate. The 12-15 age group accounts for 7% of Idaho’s total population but only 4% of the vaccinated population. The 16-17 age group is 3% of Idaho’s population but only 2% of the vaccinated population.
Idaho requires children to have a parent’s permission to get the vaccine.
“I’ve had teenagers request the vaccine, and parents said no. I’ve had parents who are vaccinated and believe their child should have the right to say no,” said Dr. David Peterman, a pediatrician and CEO of Primary Health.
“There’s nothing to be gained by confronting an adolescent … and with COVID, it isn’t going to go well to confront parents,” Peterman says. His approach is to try to answer any questions they have.
Peterman said teens, as well as their parents, are susceptible to misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine, and that it’s unlike anything he’s seen as a pediatrician when it comes to immunizations. They’ve taken his advice for years about childhood vaccines and annual flu shots but resist the coronavirus vaccine, he said.
Idaho’s pediatric COVID hospitalizations are rising
The most recent federal data show an increase in Idaho’s pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19. It is rare for a child or teen to be admitted with the disease. But it does happen. Idaho hospitals averaged 14 children with COVID-19 over the past week.
Dr. Kenneth Bramwell, of St. Luke’s Children’s – the state’s only children’s hospital – says pediatric admissions with COVID-19 are now five times higher than they were in early summer.
No Idaho child has died of causes related to COVID-19 at this point, according to state data.
At the moment, adults still far outpace children in their need for hospital care. St. Luke’s Health System on Wednesday had five children admitted with COVID-19, and about 300 adults, Bramwell noted.
“It’s certainly worrisome that we’re seeing the uptick, but it’s not the sort of panic-level admissions that we’re seeing in adults,” he said of pediatric hospitalizations.
School areas without masks have higher test positivity
Primary Health Medical Group operates several clinics in the Treasure Valley, and it is one of the largest COVID-19 test providers in Idaho.
Peterman said he’s been keeping track of the test positivity rates for patients in each school district, to see whether each district’s approach to COVID-19 safety is tied to the community as a whole.
“What you’re seeing, in most cases, the positivity rate in (the Boise School District area) is lower,” Peterman said. Boise public schools have required masking for teachers, staff and students.
School districts without mask mandates tend to also have higher COVID-19 test positivity rates – a leading indicator that the coronavirus is spreading uncontrollably in that community.
Peterman, a pediatrician, also said COVID-19 long haul syndrome is showing up in Idaho kids.
He mentioned a child who recovered from COVID-19 but now needs a pacemaker. Some patients were “superb athletes” but, after COVID-19, took monthslong breaks from sports or haven’t returned at all.
Idaho kids and teens are in mental health crisis
Dr. Jennifer King, pediatric hospitalist director at Saint Alphonsus Health System, is concerned about an increase in suicide attempts among children and teens.
The mental health effects of the pandemic have been massive and complex. Children and teens are now losing family members to the disease. They struggle to deal with isolation when they’re forced to stay home from school because of COVID-19 quarantines and school closures, she said.
She said the mental health issues among Idaho’s youngest residents are “concerning on many different fronts.”
King said the burnout of COVID-19 has caused some nurses to resign from their jobs in labor and delivery and in the pediatric unit.
She added that community exposures to COVID-19 are forcing some nurses to stay home from work, which compounds the heavy workload and staffing shortages in their departments.
COVID-19 infections seem to put newborns at risk
Dr. Nikolai Shalygin, a neonatologist who works in the Saint Alphonsus NICU, said there is an increase in babies who must be delivered prematurely because the mother has COVID-19, with complications.
The babies are not only born too early – a health risk on its own – but also enter the world with complications not usually seen even in premature babies, he said.
The babies “are sicker than we would expect them to be, and they’re staying in the NICU longer,” Shalygin said.
Tragedies in Idaho hospitals, as stillbirths rise
Some pregnant women who are hospitalized with COVID-19 recover, only to go home without a baby.
Dr. Lauren Miller, perinatal health director at St. Luke’s Health System, said her team is focused on trying to get entire families vaccinated to protect children as well as pregnant moms.
“(In this) wave of COVID, we have seen far more admissions” among pregnant women, she said. Many of them end up in the ICU or on ventilators.
Their critical condition isn’t just from COVID-19 itself, she says. The women end up with secondary infections, as their bodies try to fight the virus.
Miller and Bramwell said they’re noticing more tragic outcomes: stillbirths. The babies are dead upon delivery, with no explanation aside from the mother’s COVID-19.
“I have personally seen several cases during the last couple of weeks,” Miller said.
The mothers have no pre-existing risk factors, aside from pregnancy, Miller said. They’re young, fit and healthy. They’re just unvaccinated, she said.