Mild disagreement

Re: “Protect those at risk”, (PostBag, June 26).

While I normally value Khun Burin’s contributions to PostBag, I must correct his claim on Sunday that Covid has only killed nine children in the US.

Unfortunately, data from the CDC WONDER NCHS (which tracks deaths with Covid as the underlying cause) shows a cumulative 1,088 paediatric deaths up to May 1, 2022. The same dataset records more than five paediatric Covid deaths per day throughout January 2022 — more children than died of cancer daily.

Nor are infected children immune from potential long Covid, while countries which have seen mass infection have also experienced peaks in paediatric fulminant hepatitis, requiring liver transplants in severe cases and with life-changing consequences.

Unfortunately, the “Covid is mild in children” trope couldn’t be more wrong. Until every classroom in Thailand is fitted with Hepa filters and set up with a constant flow of ventilation, we should continue protecting our children with indoor masking requirements, rather than adopting the “let it rip” approach that many Western countries have followed, to the detriment of children’s health.