Recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that COVID-19 is a lower risk for school children than the seasonal influenza.
PolitiFact researched the claim and rated the statement “Mostly True.” This designation indicates that “the statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.”
PolitiFact found that studies show the number of COVID-related deaths and hospitalizations among children is lower than flu averages.
PolitiFact qualified the rating by stating that “it’s uncertain if these lower rates among children were partly because schools were closed since March and whether those rates will rise as classrooms reopen this fall.”
The Numbers
Data from the from the Florida Department of Health show the state’s COVID-19 mortality rate is 0.02 percent for people 24 and younger which is the same as the influenza mortality rate for this age group.
However, for children 14 and younger, Florida’s COVID-19 mortality rate is 0.009 percent, below the 0.01 percent for flu for that age group.
The CDC estimates there were 480 deaths among U.S. children due to flu in the 2018-19 season, including 136 cases where the virus was confirmed by laboratory testing.
As of mid-August, 90 children died of COVID-19 in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
What about complications that require hospitalization?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the “risk of complications for healthy children is higher for flu compared to COVID-19.”
During 2018-19 more than 46,000 children were hospitalized for flu and the the hospitalization rate among children 5 to 17 was 39.2 children per 100,000 children.
The CDC reported that the hospitalization rate for COVID-19 is 6 per 100,000 children for 5 to 17.
PolitiFact Verifies COVID-19 is a Lower Risk Than Flu for School-Aged Kids added by Steve Stewart on
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I never hear statistics on how kids fair in school and life without grandparents vs with grandparents and other family elders. We often see information on single parent vs having both a mom and a dad.
I think that is really the significance of children going back to school in middle of this pandemic that we as a nation have failed to contain. Yes, kids aren’t likely to die from COVID. However, their grandparents or great grand parents and any parent who has an underlying condition is much more likely to parish as a result of kids going back to school when we aren’t effectively doing contact tracing and efficient enough testing and isolation to contain the spread. The “less likely than the flu” data is true but not the real point.
And now we have a big jump one week into students returning and two weeks into college students returning. It is called spread people. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2020/09/03/coronavirus-leon-county-chiles-teacher-hospitalized-largest-single-day-jump-recorded-cases/5701460002/
This article fails to mention the problem that these infected children, while subject to a lower mortality or hospitalization rate, live with OTHER people (I know this a crazy idea, hold on people, hear me out) and they bring it home to those people. As well as spread it to the teachers and staff of the school, but those people don’t really matter.
THIS HAS BEEN EXPLAINED AD INFINITUM,
Also, fail to see all the other weird political angles that you sad people are trying to bring into this, but whatever gets you through I guess…
So now just a few days before school opens and LCS has changed the quarantine requirement from 14 days (which has been the standard since January all over the world) to 3 days. And for teachers or staff to get tested and they will get their results within 3 days and if negative go back into the classroom.
Do people not realize that testing very early in the infection quite often results in a negative test. A false negative. Ideally one should test about 6-7 days after possible exposure in order to improve accuracy. And the rapid tests have a 15 percent false negative rate.
So the 3 day quarantine rule is not based on science.
Trump wants to get re-elected, and he thinks by improving the economy he will get re-elected. So in order to get the economy moving you have to get people back to work. Well you cant get all people back to work unless kids are back in school. And this logic is driving the decision-making, not science.
I like you Hope! 🙂
How dare you bring facts into a political debate about COVID.
Hope. Your “fact” is racist and should be deleted. Blaming Ben Crump is as low as you could go?
I have seen BC in action……….I believe Hope.
Suzy
I disagree with you and I don’t believe I was being racist at all because it wasn’t meant to be. I judge people on the content of their character and not the color of the skin.
I believe Ben Crump is racist if you want to go there.
Curtis is oblivious and Sheriff McNeil is too busy engaging our taxpayer dollars funneled into his campaign through Sean Pittman. We know what Scott Maddox and Andrew Gillum were doing.
All asleep at the wheel tending to their own needs rather than the needs of the public at large.
Great insights Snidely!
OFF TOPIC: [dont freak out topic Karens]
The local Fake NewsOcrat is running a story on how all the recent dead young men and innocent bystanders is a result of an ongoing gang war between “northside” and “southside” gangs.
I wonder if other local media will pick up on this.
And if the Fake NewsOcrat knows all about it you know Leon County Sheriffs and TDP have known all about it for a long long time.
Gov. DeSantis when former Governor Rick Scott sent the FL Highway Patrol in to Tallahassee a few years back to clean up a simmilar mess in Tallahassee our locals would/could not act proactively on That Worked real good!!!
Help us Governor!!!! Our local leaders wont.
Thank you Tallahassee Reports and Governor DeSantis.
Here is another fact:
Watching the news the other day a young man was being asked to stop by police. This young man had an extensive criminal record and an active warrant out for his arrest and presently somehow involved in a domestic dispute.
He was resisting police and failed to stop, was getting into his car where he had a knife and three young children.
I saw a heroic action by a police officer who may have saved the lives of three young innocent children.
The man who was resisting police should have stopped and perhaps his children would have seen him being arrested and not shot.
It is a very sad thing that this young man was shot and for people to come to a conclusion without knowing all the facts.
We read about men in violent situations who murder their wives, children, and unborn children.
If this man had not been stopped he possibly could have turned his car into a weapon and killed innocent bystanders, police officers, and even his children.
I saw a police officer the other day who saved the lives of three innocent children and I am sorry that the young man would not follow directions. and put the police in this situation to control him. But I am glad those children are safe.
Tallahassee’s Ben Crump to start getting on the media and screaming racism is irresponsible and he should lose his license to practice law.
Ben Crump is an ambulance chaser and he is not benefiting Humanity he is benefiting himself for monetary gain.
What’s say you Morgan & Morgan? Is he still an employee of yours, if so, you should consider firing him for causing racial unrest across the country time and time again?
Maybe Ben Crump doesn’t like the police because his brother was thrown off the police force for raping women who he stopped while on duty as a Tallahassee police officer?
If Ben Crump wanted to do good for Humanity he would be screaming for his client to follow directions of police officers and not put innocent children in a dangerous situation.
I am sorry the young man was shot. I am sorry Ben Crump cries racism for monetary gain. I am glad that three innocent children are safe. And I think a police officer saved the lives of those three young children.
Ben Crump is responsible for inciting violence.
All lives matter.