How do new variants affect kids? When can we go on cruises?
What scientists know about COVID-19 changes as fast as the SARS-COV-2 virus can mutate. COVID Help Desk is here to help: Each week a Chronicle reporter tracks down answers fresh, up-to-date info about the stuff our readers want to know.
How does the B.1.1.7 variant affect kids? How might that affect the coming school year?
That variant arose in southeast England in September.
By December, it had surpassed the original COVID strain in the British Isles. “It’s a bad actor,” says vaccine researcher Peter Hotez of Baylor and Texas Children’s Hospital. “It’s more transmissible than anything we’ve seen before. It has higher hospitalization rates and higher mortality rates — and to make things worse, we’re starting to see now in the upper Midwest a number of young adults getting very sick.”
Since mid-March the number of U.S. children infected with COVID has been growing steadily in states such as Minnesota, Nevada and Michigan. In Massachusetts, the largest number of confirmed cases is currently in the 0-19 age group.
Some outbreaks of the B.1.1.7 variant appear to be driven by youth sports. For instance, in Carver County, Minn., an outbreak of 189 cases was connected to school sports teams. The interlinked cases spanned elementary through high school, affecting 18 hockey teams, four basketball teams, three lacrosse teams and one soccer team. At least one of those people, a 62-year-old hockey referee, died.
At a press briefing Monday, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that CDC guidance already calls for limiting youth sports. She urged Americans to “continue to do the things that we know prevent the spread.”
Hotez expressed hope that the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine will soon be released for use in adolescents between 12 and 15
years old. “I think you’re gonna see by fall that middle schools, junior high schools and high schools are going to have a very high percentage of both the students and the teachers and staff vaccinated. So we’re looking at a great fall school year — at least for the middle schools and high schools.”
When will we be able to take cruises again?
Short answer: Not yet, but maybe soon.
As of April 2, the CDC recommends that “all people avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises, worldwide.” The chance of getting COVID-19 during a cruise is high, the CDC says, “since the virus appears to spread more easily between people in close quarters aboard ships.”
That said, the CDC is inching toward allowing cruise ships to ply U.S. waters again. On Monday, it issued technical “Cruise Ship Guidance” describing what cruises in U.S. waters will probably look like if they resume before the global pandemic is over: “Preventive measures, including hand hygiene, social distancing, and wearing face masks or cloth face coverings, are essential to maintaining ship operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
So when might such COVID-conscious cruises start? The industry and the places whose economies it feeds say that ought to be soon: This week, Galveston Wharves CEO and Port Director Rodger Rees joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cruise Line International Association in calling for the CDC to allow “safe, sustainable phased cruising” to begin again in July.
But the decision is up to the CDC.
How do you tell the difference between allergies and COVID?
Dr. Tania Elliott, an internist at NYU Langone Health and a national spokesperson for the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, notes that allergies and COVID have overlapping symptoms, including cough, congestion, stuffiness, sinus issues or a runny nose. “If you have a fever or your symptoms came on abruptly,” she says, “or you have come into contact with a sick person, or been out and about in public, it’s more likely to be COVID.”
Seasonal allergies tend to occur around the same time every year and can last for weeks or months, she notes, and they get worse when outside. She suggests one possible way to tell the difference: “For allergies, antihistamines like Xyzal can help relieve symptoms, but they won’t have an effect on COVID symptoms.”
The Mayo Clinic’s website offers more guidance. “While COVID-19 can cause shortness of breath or difficulty breathing,” it says, “seasonal allergies don't usually cause these symptoms unless you have a respiratory condition such as asthma that can be triggered by pollen exposure.”
Also, according to the Mayo Clinic, COVID usually involves fever and muscle aches, and sometimes causes nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Allergies don’t.
Does blood type affect COVID infections?
Early in the pandemic, it seemed that might be possible: A small, early study from China suggested that blood Type A was more susceptible to COVID, and Type O less so. Later studies weren’t conclusive: Some pointed toward yes, some toward no.
But now, people with blood Type A can rest easier. This week finally brought a great big study, which means an answer that’s likely to be definitive. In the April 5 JAMA Network Open, a research group led by Dr. Jeffrey Anderson looked at the records of roughly 108,000 people tested for COVID at Intermountain Healthcare, a system of 24 hospitals and 215 clinics in Utah, Idaho and Nevada. Of those, more than 11,000 tested positive.
The researchers found no association between blood types and susceptibility to COVID-19 or the disease’s severity.