thank you so much for your reporting. joining me now cnn medical analyst and former city of baltimore health commissioner dr. lena women. she s also the author of life lines: a doctor s fight in public health. all along there has been this misunderstanding that somehow covid doesn t affect children. of course children have gotten infected with covid. sadly, hundreds of children have died and actually covid is one of the leading causes of death among children. it came out of nowhere to become one of the leading causes of death in kids. and this is why vaccinations for younger children remains extremely important. the issue that we re seeing right now is there is just so much covid everywhere across the u.s., and so children are getting ill in larger numbers.
pneumonia, covid pneumonia certainly we see that in pediatrics as well. and currently about a third of the pediatric patients hospitalized here in houston and in texas are requiring critical care, intensive care stays. dr. roy, what would you tell people who still believe that children with covid aren t heavily impacted by covid, that it s not a big deal? i would encourage them to listen to people like dr. propst and other other pediatricians and doctors and specialists and front line health care workers and parents of children who are struggling, who are sick, who are getting hospitalized and sadly who are dying. the thing is, jonathan, and i already know what the push back is going to be. a lot of the people some people are going to say, well, wait a second i thought you all said covid doesn t affect children. the reality is that sarz kov 2
we dr. roy, what would you tell people who still believe what that children with covid art heavily impacted by covid, that is not a big deal? i would encourage them to listen to people like doctor propst, and other pediatricians and doctors and specialists and health care workers, and parents of children who are struggling, who are sick, who are getting hospitalized. and sadly who are dying. the thing is,, jonathan and i already know that but the pushback s gonna be, a lot of people some people are going to say, well wait a second, i thought you all said that covid doesn t affect children. the reality is, sars covid two is a novel coronavirus. we are still learning about it, every single day, scientists from around the world are publishing new data almost every day. the cdc and other international health agencies are trying to learn from the scientists,