Dont even care if I get the virus because judging from my age group I can shrug it off.
Yeah but you are a Trojan horse.
JUST got back from my kid's pediatrician's office. I told him my concerns and asked him about his.
Here is the context: I am pregnant, due in May. I have a son who is 5, and attends public school. I have a daughter who is 2 years of age. I am an older mom in my 4th decade.
Dr. works in downtown Los Angeles and has admitting privileges at Children's Hospital LA, and another hospital nearby. He makes his rounds when babies are born, and when they are in the NICU and the PICU.
Pediatrician is over the age of 60. I believe that he also teaches at a local medical school.
My purpose for sharing this background information, is to enable people to gague the reliability of the information, for themselves.
He told me that healthy children between 0 and 10 can contract COVID-19, but they are probably not going to show extreme symptoms, or any symptoms, etc.
So I asked him:
Q: Can our son bring it home from school asymptomaticly?
A: Yes.
Q: Can he put me on my deathbed?
A: No, because there is nothing wrong with you.
Q: Well ... at least physically, right?
A: You are not diabetic, have weak lungs, a bad heart or compromised kidney function, correct? Then you shouldn't worry.
Q: So basically "pregnancy" or "age" alone are not risk factors?
A: The basic risk factor is having a preexisting condition or disease process. The virus seems to be particularly fond of lungs. As we age, disease process can develop, therefore the risk of fatality is higher, in older people.
Q: So basically this is an opportunistic infection?
A: Of a sort, yes.
Q: So I Don't have to worry about burying a couple of kids in a few months?
A: Not babies and toddlers, they don't have any diseases going on, and newborn inherits your immunity.
Q: Well aren't you concerned about your exposure to all these kids, due to your age?
A: No, I am not. I am healthy. It is not age alone. It is underlying conditions.
The end.
Ok, this information is date-stamped.
Like I said, he has had a practice for about 40 years, and he has clearly informed himself on this topic. He is dealing with a population that has 4 generations under 1 roof, in crowded urban conditions. He is a pediatrician and not a gerontologist. But he did confirm that a school-aged child or any young healthy person, can infect others. And you or I might infect each other, and we visit grandma, and kill her, if she has weak lungs.
It doesn't have to be grandma. It can be a TB survivor, a veteran, a smoker, a neighbor on dialysis ... please let's think of others. That is all I have to say.
