Cases rising or dropping by you?

[DeeBee3]

Kids weren't just all of a sudden testing positive. I'm not sure where you got that.

The immune system response in children may be that they don't exhibit the systems as much. Testing was generally more focused on more vulnerable populations especially elders and those in the workforce who have constant contact with the general population.

As schools start up there becomes a different focus towards students and this goes for preK-12 and college level (universities all over are talking about testing their students). As summer sports and activities (like camps and whatnot) started up more youths were getting tests either preventative or after the fact due to exposures.

As for your sneaking suspicion regarding testing every person you don't need to have a suspicion about it and perhaps you were unaware (which is fine just seeking to give you the information)..they've been saying for many months now. Literally every news story locally for me about COVID numbers says the following "The actual number of cases is thought to be far higher because people can be infected without feeling ill and because of a lack of testing, particularly early in the pandemic." which has been the rhetoric for a long time.

A few months ago they were talking about 8 some million people may have had it without it being tallied due to extrapolation of antibody tests.

Locally here in NY, there are few children under age 18 who have diagnosed cases. I can't remember now without looking, where the majority of under 18 cases have been reported. Just over the weekend it was a big headline online and in the big news channels. They were emphasizing how NOW there is such high reporting of under 18 numbers. If you just type in "children covid cases" articles come up on CNN, NPR, and various other sites - large increase in last 2 weeks of July in children's cases. That's where I am getting my info.

And the reason I stated about all of us testing is positive is just exactly what you typed above about asymptomatic cases.

I'm not arguing with you - just telling you where and how I get my info.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Locally here in NY, there are few children under age 18 who have diagnosed cases. I can't remember now without looking, where the majority of under 18 cases have been reported. Just over the weekend it was a big headline online and in the big news channels. They were emphasizing how NOW there is such high reporting of under 18 numbers. If you just type in "children covid cases" articles come up on CNN, NPR, and various other sites - large increase in last 2 weeks of July in children's cases. That's where I am getting my info.

And the reason I stated about all of us testing is positive is just exactly what you typed above about asymptomatic cases.

I'm not arguing with you - just telling you where and how I get my info.

I know what you're talking about and I don't think you're arguing either

Your comment was "Now all of a sudden kids are testing positive - why all of a sudden? It just seems odd." Kids haven't just all of a sudden tested positive as if one day they weren't and the next they were.

The 20s-30s age group has been outpacing in general as testing positive throughout the country for months now as businesses reopened (which the workforce is younger in many of these businesses), bars and nightclubs reopened (as they typically frequent those), and overall more gatherings occurring without masks.

The young children before a lot were not being tested unless there was good reason (symptom related, exposure related) as testing supplies low. Now that summer sports and activities like camps have restarted more have been tested for that. Now that school is starting back up the same. We are able to account for the numbers more than we ever did before. At least NPR's article even states this: "The uptick in cases is due, in part, to an increase in testing." The activities the kids are engaging in also contributes to spread. A summer camp in June with 260 campers and staff (who were in their teens) testing positive for example. In July in MO (one of the states that had a decent uptick) a summer camp 82 individuals comprising of campers, staff and counselors tested positive. You didn't have that going on as much earlier on. The various levels of what each state considers "kid" will overlap with some of the other reasons (workforce, risky behaviors both with place of business and gatherings). That does also make it more difficult along with incomplete data from certain states. Even my county announced yesterday and starting yesterday they will allocate 25% of its testing supplies to children in preparation for schooling (though that's been push back to just after labor day for most of the districts here).

 

[DeeBee3]

Yes, that makes sense - summer camps and people being more out and about. I do recall they said the testing has gone up for kids. Was also surprised to read how some states even consider up to 24 as kid! With 2 little kids it's hard to make sense of all these caveats.

I'm so used to people jumping on others over these topics that I always want to clarify my tone. Hard to read sometimes online.

I know what you're talking about and I don't think you're arguing either

Your comment was "Now all of a sudden kids are testing positive - why all of a sudden? It just seems odd." Kids haven't just all of a sudden tested positive as if one day they weren't and the next they were.

The 20s-30s age group has been outpacing in general as testing positive throughout the country for months now as businesses reopened (which the workforce is younger in many of these businesses), bars and nightclubs reopened (as they typically frequent those), and overall more gatherings occurring without masks.

The young children before a lot were not being tested unless there was good reason (symptom related, exposure related) as testing supplies low. Now that summer sports and activities like camps have restarted more have been tested for that. Now that school is starting back up the same. We are able to account for the numbers more than we ever did before. At least NPR's article even states this: "The uptick in cases is due, in part, to an increase in testing." The activities the kids are engaging in also contributes to spread. A summer camp in June with 260 campers and staff (who were in their teens) testing positive for example. In July in MO (one of the states that had a decent uptick) a summer camp 82 individuals comprising of campers, staff and counselors tested positive. You didn't have that going on as much earlier on. The various levels of what each state considers "kid" will overlap with some of the other reasons (workforce, risky behaviors both with place of business and gatherings). That does also make it more difficult along with incomplete data from certain states. Even my county announced yesterday and starting yesterday they will allocate 25% of its testing supplies to children in preparation for schooling (though that's been push back to just after labor day for most of the districts here).

 

[godisney14]

Yes, that makes sense - summer camps and people being more out and about. I do recall they said the testing has gone up for kids. Was also surprised to read how some states even consider up to 24 as kid! With 2 little kids it's hard to make sense of all these caveats.

I'm so used to people jumping on others over these topics that I always want to clarify my tone. Hard to read sometimes online.

Just curious. Are you sure testing for kids have increased? As a country, the daily number of new tests in the US has gone down from >800k tests to 700k tests in the past couple weeks. Texas, especially, has seen about a 40% drop in daily tests conducted on a weekly basis.
If you are right, this means adults aren’t getting tested, which seems odd and unlikely.

Regarding what age is still considered kids, know that the health insurance law in the US allows for children up to 26 years old (even if married) to stay on their parent’s health insurance plan.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Just curious. Are you sure testing for kids have increased? As a country, the daily number of new tests in the US has gone down from >800k tests to 700k tests in the past couple weeks. Texas, especially, has seen about a 40% drop in daily tests conducted on a weekly basis.
If you are right, this means adults aren’t getting tested, which seems odd and unlikely.

Regarding what age is still considered kids, know that the health insurance law in the US allows for children up to 26 years old (even if married) to stay on their parent’s health insurance plan.

Why are you disbelieving sources..which by the way was quoted within the articles? Testing overall going down does not equate to impossibility of testing going up for a targeted group. You can shift who you are testing. While long-term care facilities are still experiencing outbreaks it's not quite as prevalent, meat processing plants are still experiencing outbreaks it's not quite as prevalent. And so on. I assure you testing on kids is increasing and in my comments I'm speaking about summer itself and the information that prompted the PP's comments was discussing July in particular last 2 weeks of July.

The ACA adjusting in age has ZERO to do with the various ages states are using as far as I'm aware. I'm not even sure why you would think they are connected. It's not about being defined as a "kid" for ACA it was for dependent on health insurance only. If that were the case you'd have more and more states uses age 25 anyways and stating that's why.

From the NPR article: "For data reporting purposes, a majority of states use an age range between 0-17 and 0-19, but, in Tennessee and South Carolina, the cutoff is 20. In Alabama, it's 24. Also, according to the report, the number of positive tests among children could be far higher because of incomplete reporting from New York and Texas. In fact, Texas provided age distribution for just 8% of its confirmed COVID-19 cases and was excluded from many of the report's findings." (underlining is mine since you mentioned Texas)

 

[disneychrista]

As a country, the daily number of new tests in the US has gone down from >800k tests to 700k tests in the past couple weeks.

If my county is any indication of a national issue it is a lack of supplies not a lack of need. My local hospital is in such short supply they are diagnosing patients with COVID and sending them home to isolate for 10 days without testing because they don’t have enough tests. Only those that require hospitalization are getting testing.

 

[tvguy]

Still climbing here in California. And all those records set in the past month were the result of flawed data that UNDER REPORTED cases.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Just a few months ago they started testing more kids based on recommendations related to the Kawasaki-like post-Covid syndrome - later named Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children - they were seeing in clusters in hard hit areas. This is why we have been seeing more kids tested.

https://www.healio.com/news/pediatr...multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-in-children

 

[disneychrista]

Still climbing here in California. And all those records set in the past month were the result of flawed data that UNDER REPORTED cases.

My county was keeping track of their own numbers and not replying on the state system and we still had a large jump in cases on Saturday from one of the labs not reporting or under reporting for 9 days.

 

[tvguy]

My county was keeping track of their own numbers and not replying on the state system and we still had a large jump in cases on Saturday from one of the labs not reporting or under reporting for 9 days.

The drastic changes the pandemic brought really caught a lot of operations into territory they were not prepared for. Illnesses. Education. Work from home. And the businesses that are thriving because of the pandemic, The Post Office, FedEx, UPS, even pizza parlors are scrambling to keep up with demand.

 

[JimMIA]

My county was keeping track of their own numbers and not replying on the state system and we still had a large jump in cases on Saturday from one of the labs not reporting or under reporting for 9 days.

And THAT is the whole problem with looking only at one day. There are backups in lab tests. There are backups in processing death certificates. And for every statistic, there are reporting glitches -- backups, missing the 11:00:00 AM deadline for reporting -- dozens of things that can cause significant fluctuations.

That's why it's best to look at moving averages and trends -- not one day's results.

 

[disneychrista]

And THAT is the whole problem with looking only at one day.

I agree, you have to look at the big picture. Spreading it out of the 9 days it was a 40% increase by day. Took our daily average from 9 to 13.

 

[ronandannette]

Just a few months ago they started testing more kids based on recommendations related to the Kawasaki-like post-Covid syndrome - later named Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children - they were seeing in clusters in hard hit areas. This is why we have been seeing more kids tested.

https://www.healio.com/news/pediatr...multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-in-children

Any current stats on that? I haven’t heard anything of it since the initial alarm was raised. Have there been a lot o cases diagnosed?

 

[HeatherC]

Any current stats on that? I haven’t heard anything of it since the initial alarm was raised. Have there been a lot o cases diagnosed?

I just reas an article on CNN about Dr. Sanjay Gupta not sending his kids to school. There was a brief blurb about 570 cases so far with 2/3 of the kids having no underlying conditions before being diagnosed.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/health/covid-kids-school-gupta-essay/index.html

 

[ronandannette]

I just reas an article on CNN about Dr. Sanjay Gupta not sending his kids to school. There was a brief blurb about 570 cases so far with 2/3 of the kids having no underlying conditions before being diagnosed.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/health/covid-kids-school-gupta-essay/index.html

Thanks. I'm unclear on the implications. Are they saying the 2/3 of children did or did not have Covid?

 

[JimMIA]

Here's a great example of the problem with looking at a single day's numbers.

Our local media was screaming hysterically today because Florida's new cases took a big jump up. Florida reported 8,000+ new cases, with 4,100 of them in Miami-Dade County...a HUGE increase.

None of that looked right, so an investigation was conducted. They found that ONE LAB in Miami Gardens, FL dumped 4,000 cases in ONE DAY. Almost 3,000 of those were from our county and the other 1,000 were from other parts of Florida.

The cases covered not one day, but SEVEN WEEKS of testing. Some of the tests were actually conducted as long ago as JUNE 23!

So that tells us two things -- some days previously were undercounted because the results were not reported in a timely manner, and that today's numbers are just plain crazy.

Sorry -- forgot to post the link. Here it is:

https://www.local10.com/news/local/...-skewed-by-a-miami-dade-lab-hoarding-results/

 

[jlmarr]

Orange County CA: 11 deaths yesterday. Hospitalizations trending down but still above the numbers for most of June.

 

[HeatherC]

Thanks. I'm unclear on the implications. Are they saying the 2/3 of children did or did not have Covid?

When I read it, I think I interpreted it as just saying 2/3 did not have underlying conditions prior to getting Covid. Certainly not much information out there regarding this.

 

[HeatherC]

So I have a question. Our town was recently designated “yellow” by the state which means we are seeing an elevated risk of cases. They are defining high risk (red) as 8 or more cases per 100,000 people. We are yellow which is something like between 5-8 cases per 100,000. Our population is about 14,000 people and we have had a total of 105 cases.

Am I not seeing something, because this does not seem high risk to me at all. What am I missing?

 

[bookwormde]

While our active cases are still rising, we are down to 7/100000/day 7 day new case average. that is not as low (5) that we were in May but about 1/2 of where we were in June/July