US Reports: Race disparities in kids with COVID-19

Racial disparities in the the U.S. coronavirus epidemic extend to children, according to two sobering government reports released Friday. One of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports looked children with COVID-19 who needed hospitalization. Hispanic children were hospitalized at a rate eight times higher than white kids, and Black children were hospitalized at a rate five times higher, it found.

The second report examined cases of a rare virus-associated syndrome in kids. It found that nearly three-quarters of the children with the syndrome were either Hispanic or Black, well above their representation in the general population.

The coronavirus has exposed racial fractures in the U.S. health care system, as Black, Hispanic and Native Americans have been hospitalized and killed by COVID-19 at far higher rates  than other groups.

"What's important, I think, to note is that while these disparities are larger than the ones that we see in adults, they mirror what we're seeing in adults. In other words, what we're seeing among adults is that Latinos, for example, are much more likely to be exposed and contract COVID than other people," said Dr. Alicia Fernandez, professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco.

"So it's very reasonable that if you have Latino workers who are out there doing work, coming into contact with the virus and getting sick, that they bring that virus home to their children. Fortunately, most children do not get very sick and in fact most children may be asymptomatic. But there is always a small proportion of children who do get sick," she added.

Meanwhile, the impact of the virus on children has become a political issue. President Donald Trump and some other administration officials have been pushing schools to re-open, a step that would allow more parents to return to work and the economy to pick up.

On Wednesday, Facebook deleted a post by Trump for violating its policy against spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. The post featured a link to a Fox News video in which Trump says children are "virtually immune" to the virus.

The vast majority of coronavirus cases and deaths have been in adults, and kids are considered less likely to have serious symptoms when they're infected. Of the nearly 5 million cases reported in the U.S. as of Wednesday, about 265,000 were in children 17 and under — about 5%. Of the more than 156,000 deaths reported at that time, 77 were children — about 0.05%.

The first report is based on cases received from hospitals in 14 states. The researchers counted 576 hospitalizations of kids from March 1 through July 25 of this year. The report did not have detailed medical information on all of them, but at least 12 were sick enough to need a machine to help them breathe. One died.

The hospitalization rate for Hispanic children was about 16.4 per 100,000. The rate for Black children was 10.5 per 100,000, and for white kids it was 2.1 per 100,000.

As with adults, many of the hospitalized children had existing health problems, including obesity, chronic lung conditions and — in the case of infants — preterm birth. The reported death was a child with several underlying conditions, the report said.

"We believe that the main reason that Latino and African American adults are more likely to get COVID is because of their occupational hazard, because they tend to be essential workers, they're more likely to be working in workplaces where they are exposed to multiple other people. They're much less likely to have jobs where they can work from home and be protected, and unfortunately this makes their children more vulnerable as well," said Dr. Amy Beck, assistant professor of pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco.

The second CDC report focused on 570 kids diagnosed with a rare coronavirus-linked inflammatory condition. Eight of them died.

Some children with the syndrome have symptoms resembling Kawasaki disease, another rare childhood condition that can cause swelling and heart problems. Other symptoms include fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, bloodshot eyes or feeling extra tired.

In the study, many of the patients with the condition had severe complications, including heart problems and kidney damage. Nearly two-thirds of the cases overall were admitted to intensive care units, and the average ICU stay was five days.

"It is quite worrisome because the children that have this syndrome (MIS-C, a rare coronavirus-linked inflammatory condition) do get very, very ill and often require intensive care. They often have effects in multiple systems in their body," according to Beck.

The CDC report covered illnesses that began from mid-February to mid-July. Forty states reported cases.

The report found that 13% of kids with the condition were white, while more than 40% were Hispanic and 33% were Black. Overall, about half of U.S. children are white, around 25% Hispanic and about 14% are Black, according to population estimates.