Liberal Outlet Runs COVID Scare Piece but Leaves Out 1 Vital Stat Every American Should Know
Axios, a sometimes reliable outlet that is also often a source for Democrats to spread their message of hopelessness and despair, reported Tuesday on rising hospitalizations of young people amid a reported surge in coronavirus cases.
The story contained all the right attribution from a reliable source: doctors from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
But Axios conspicuously left out a very important detail, which was in the source material. That detail is that while children are becoming sick, they are not dying from the coronavirus at an alarming rate. In fact, doctors continue to share grave concerns about their mental wellbeing as the world is still going berserk.
“More kids are landing in the hospital due to COVID and it’s not yet clear if it’s because the Delta variant is causing more serious illness in kids,” Axios reported.
“Why it matters: Hospitals are raising concerns about the increasing impact of COVID on kids at the same time schools around the country are preparing to head back for in-person instruction — many without the protection of vaccination or mask mandates,” the report said.
Indeed, the AAP reported 94,000 cases of COVID among children within the last week in its “Children and COVID-19” report. In fact, children made up roughly 15 percent of total cases.
According to the report, between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent of those currently hospitalized with COVID are kids.
“As of August 5, nearly 4.3 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Almost 94,000 cases were added the past week, a continuing substantial increase,” the AAP reported. “After declining in early summer, child cases have steadily increased since the beginning of July.”
Axios shared the data from the AAP and also included some additional sources. The outlet noted that a rare condition in children associated with the coronavirus called multisystem inflammatory syndrome tends to flare up during case outbreaks. Right now, we’re in an outbreak.
“Experts say the concerning rise makes the case for both masks and vaccinations for kids in the Delta era,” Axios said.
The news certainly sounds super scary, and that is clearly the gist of why Axios shared the data from the AAP.
Nobody wants to see anyone hospitalized, especially children.
But was the news all bad? Not when you independently look at the same source that Axios used.
Axios left out that the AAP used information provided by dozens of states that cumulatively reported a very low death rate, while some states reported no deaths at all among kids.
“Among states reporting, children were 0.00%-0.26% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 7 states reported zero child deaths,” the report said. “In states reporting, 0.00%-0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in death.”
One death among children is too many. But the AAP noted that since last March, roughly 4.3 million children have tested positive for the coronavirus — and yet some states have recorded no deaths among kids, while other states reported very few.
We know the coronavirus tends to challenge the elderly and those with existing health conditions. But the mortality rate is low enough for children that the AAP specifically mentioned the pandemic’s effect on their mental and emotional health prior to releasing mortality statistics in the report.
“At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects,” the report said.
We need to protect vulnerable people from becoming sick, especially children. Axios rightly reported that kids are becoming ill during the current wave of reported cases.
But what the AAP reported was not gloomy. It was hopeful.
Despite a rise in coronavirus cases among children, almost all of them are surviving.
That part might be inconvenient for the establishment media, which is only interested in running COVID pieces designed to terrify people into embracing further restrictions. But it’s remarkable news for which we should all be thankful.
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