Inside One Hospital As Pediatric COVID-19 Cases Explode
The sign posted at Children's Hospital New Orleans (CHNO) means what it says: "Employees must wipe away tears before returning to work." As my colleague Jamie Ducharme reports following a recent visit, there's a good reason so many health care workers there are devastated.
As the Delta COVID-19 variant surges across the U.S., cases and hospitalizations are rising among kids, a group once thought to be well-protected from the disease. Earlier in the pandemic, pediatric hospitals generally didn't see "more than a handful of patients at a time," Jamie writes. But as of Aug. 14, 1,900 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide. Louisiana, where the virus has been spreading exponentially among all age groups, has seen a particularly grim spike in childhood infections; a staggering 25% of those under 18 tested across the state during the week of Aug. 6 were positive.
At CHNO, 70 juvenile patients arrived for treatment during the 30 days ending Aug. 23. Prior to the rise of the Delta variant, that number was never more than seven at a time. "It was a shock," Dr. Michael Blancaneaux, an emergency medicine physician at the hospital, told Jamie of the sudden influx. "All of a sudden, eight out of the 20 patients I saw [in a day] were COVID positive."
Kathleen Flynn for TIME
Respiratory therapist Diane Gelpi administers oxygen to two-month-old Carvase Perrilloux after he was taken off a ventilator at Children’s Hospital New Orleans on Aug. 20, 2021.
It's unclear whether the Delta variant causes worse outcomes for children, or if more children are falling ill simply because the virus is spreading so quickly. Only 40% of Louisiana residents are vaccinated, making the state vulnerable to outbreaks. Infection rates, including among kids, are also high in other low-vaccination states, such as Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas.
Still, this wave's effect on children blindsided doctors and parents alike. "Once the child does get sick, their [parents'] conception of what the virus is [changes]," Jordan Ohlsen, a nurse who works on CHNO's acute care ward, told Jamie. "When they come in and see their kid sick, in their brain it switches to, 'This is something I should be worried about,' or 'I should have gotten them vaccinated.'"
Nationwide, only 35% of children 12-15 and 45% of those 16-17 are vaccinated. Even when vaccines are eventually approved for kids under 12, there is no assurance that enough will get the shots to slow the pediatric spread of the disease. In one poll, just 26% of parents with kids aged 5-11 and 20% of those with kids under five said they would have their children vaccinated right away.
Bad as the outbreak is now, doctors at CHNO and elsewhere fear that pediatric case counts will only rise as the school year gets underway around the country. If this is the merely the ascent of the bell curve, a grim autumn could be coming, particularly since vaccines may not be available for the youngest Americans until late 2021 or early 2022. For now—ever and always—one of the best ways to keep kids safe is for the adults around them to get vaccinated.
"Everyone is frustrated and worn out and upset," says Blancaneaux. "You feel unsupported by the public because we keep fighting against it. And a large part of it is preventable."
About 434.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which nearly 365.7 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 51.9% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 213.9 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 11 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 4.4 million people have died. On August 25, there were 707,326 new cases and 11,223 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 4 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 38.2 million coronavirus cases as of 11 a.m. E.T. today. More than 632,200 people have died. On August 25, there were 148,143 new cases and 1,456 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Aug. 26, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Half of U.S. workers approve of vaccine mandates while 26% are opposed to them,according to a new Associated Press-NORC poll. Support was even higher among those currently working remotely, at 59%, compared to 47% of on-site workers. The numbers were similar for mask mandates, with 50% of workers overall (and 59% of remote workers) favoring them and 29% overall opposed.
Japansuspended the administration of more than 1.6 million Moderna vaccine doses today after one batch of 565,400 vials was found to be contaminated, Reuters reports. Moderna suspects that the problem originated at a "fill and finish" plant in Spain, and has held back both the affected batch and the two batches completed before and afterwards. Some doses from the contaminated batch were administered before the problem was recognized, officials said.
Nebraska, where hospitalizations are rising to their highest levels since January, is facing such a severe nurse shortage that it is now recruiting unvaccinated workers to meet demand,reports The New York Times. The job postings announce "$5,000 signing bonus!" and "No mandated COVID-19 vaccinations." The openings may be attractive to health care workers opposed to employer vaccine mandates, a spokesman for governor Pete Ricketts said in a statement.
U.S. jobless claims edged up only slightly last week to 353,000, per Labor Department data out today, one of the lowest levels since March 2020. The number was just above the previous week's 349,000 figure, which was a pandemic-era low. Applications for unemployment benefits overall are down more than 50% since the start of the year, per The Wall Street Journal.
Officials in more than 24 Chinese cities have warned residents in recent weeks that they will be held accountable if they remain unvaccinated and are the cause of a coronavirus outbreak, The Washington Post reports. Penalties were not explicitly stated. Some localities also forbid the unvaccinated to visit hospitals or enter any public venue, while other districts have threatened to suspend medical insurance and social security for the unvaccinated and their immediate families.
While cruise lines are continuing to operate in the U.S. amid the Delta-driven fourth wave, many have imposed stricter rules for passengers over the past several weeks, The AP reports. Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean and Carnival announced they are now requiring all passengers 12 and older to be vaccinated, and they are re-instituting mask mandates in indoor areas and other high-traffic places where people congregate on their ships. The moves are partly in response to rules from at least one popular destination: On Sept. 3, the Bahamas will require all passengers 12 and older to be vaccinated in order for cruise liners to dock.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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