Breakthrough COVID Infections Add Even More Chaos To School’s Start In 2021

Enlarge this image

Stephanie Chenard held hands with her son Desmond, 8, as they walked to his school in the San Francisco Bay Area last week. Later that evening the school district reported four positive COVID-19 cases in four different schools.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

hide caption

toggle caption

Beth LaBerge/KQED

Enlarge this image

Alysha Johnson holds her now healthy son River at their home in Discovery Bay, Calif. After the toddler got quite sick after a playdate, his mom, aunt and her boyfriend, who’d all been vaccinated, caught what Johnson says felt «like a really bad sinus cold. Tests confirmed they all had COVID-19.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

hide caption

toggle caption

Beth LaBerge/KQED

Enlarge this image

Johnson gives River a bottle in her home in Discovery Bay. Family members spent isolation together there this summer, after getting sick with COVID-19. Everyone has since recovered.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

hide caption

toggle caption

Beth LaBerge/KQED

Shots — Health News
How To Keep Your Child Safe From The Delta Variant

Nationwide between Aug. 5 and Aug 12, about 121,000 children tested positive for the virus, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. That’s a 23% increase over the prior week.

«Time and time again we’re seeing kids return to school and then come home — either after an exposure or sick themselves, says Dr. Nicole Braxley, an emergency medicine physician at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Sacramento. «The virus sheds for a couple of days before the patient has symptoms. Entire families are suddenly exposed.

Stephanie Chenard’s 8-year-old son Desmond started third grade in the Bay Area last week. On the evening of the first day of class she received an email. The school district reported four positive COVID-19 cases in four different schools.

«It’s already started, Chenard texted us after receiving the email, including a tearful emoji in her message.

She knows firsthand how much a mild pediatric case can upend family life. About a month ago, Desmond started to lose his appetite. He quickly developed a fever. Chenard grimaces, remembering the moment the family learned Desmond had tested positive for COVID-19. The news shattered the 8-year-old.

«He just burst out into tears, she says.

Even mild COVID cases have big ramifications

The family canceled a long-awaited summer trip to Lake Tahoe, and instead isolated at home.

Chenard, a 49-year-old college administrator, started making calls. She notified her son’s summer camp. They suspended all activity. She alerted the public swimming pool. She fretted about whether to notify the organizers of a summer music festival. The hardest call was to a friend who had just had an organ transplant.

«The exposure felt like a moral failing, says Chenard.

Fortunately her son’s case was mild. His fever broke the same day it started.

«Desmond was only sick for eight hours, but I spent 45 hours on notifications alone, Chenard says. The child’s quarantine — and subsequent isolation for the rest of the family — also required both parents to juggle work and child care. Fortunately, neither parent caught the virus. Chenard feels grateful she and her husband are fully vaccinated.

Some families are not so lucky.

First the 11-year-old, then dad, then mom

Jace Garcia caught COVID-19 playing soccer with a friend in Sacramento. The virus struck the 11-year-old in the middle of the night. Jace woke up vomiting.

He curled up in the bathroom around the toilet. Body aches racked his calves, feet, chest and head.

«Everything was just squeezing that part of the body towards the bone, Jace says.

His fever spiked to around 104 degrees. He shivered under a pile of blankets. Even playing video games did not offer relief.

«Every time I would click down I would get a tingling sensation in my hand, Jace remembers. He tossed the controllers aside. «I felt dizzy.

The only advice doctors offered was try to keep him hydrated.

«As a parent, you feel helpless, says Rico Garcia, Jace’s dad. «It was like the longest few days of my life.

Rico worried he might contract the virus, too. Each morning he anxiously took a rapid test. He hoped the vaccination he got would offer complete protection, but he caught a «vaccine breakthrough case. On the fourth morning Rico Garcia tested positive for the coronavirus. Within 24 hours, symptoms set in.

Enlarge this image

Rico Garcia, left, and his son Jace, enjoying a baseball game before the pandemic’s start. This month, both father and son contracted COVID-19, as did Jace’s mom. «As a parent, you feel helpless, Garcia says, of watching Jace struggle with the illness.

Rico Garcia

hide caption

toggle caption

Rico Garcia

Shots — Health News
COVID Booster Shots Are Coming. Here’s What You Need To Know

Shots — Health News
A Shot Against COVID For Kids Under 12 — Your Questions Answered

It’s still rare for a child to die from COVID-19, or to experience a case severe enough to require hospitalization. In states where data are available, less than 2% of all pediatric cases required hospitalization and less than 0.03% are fatal.

Yet, as schools open and more students test positive for the virus, parents and teachers find themselves trying to weigh the risks. Psychologically, the increased isolation of remote learning during the pandemic has been hard on many families, and especially children — a fact underscored by the spike in U.S. emergency room visits by kids for mental health issues last year.

Enlarge this image

Stephanie Chenard bid her 3rd grader, Desmond, goodbye for the day, as he headed into his classroom last week. Screens can’t replace the value of in-person interaction for schoolkids says UCSF psychotherapist Saun-Toy Trotter. «One element of their well-being, she says, is being with peers — learning, stretching, struggling, growing and connecting.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

hide caption

toggle caption

Beth LaBerge/KQED

Stephanie Chenard bid her 3rd grader, Desmond, goodbye for the day, as he headed into his classroom last week. Screens can’t replace the value of in-person interaction for schoolkids says UCSF psychotherapist Saun-Toy Trotter. «One element of their well-being, she says, is being with peers — learning, stretching, struggling, growing and connecting.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

«Young people experienced more depression and anxiety because of the level of isolation, says Saun-Toy Trotter, a psychotherapist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland. She stresses that screens can’t replace in-person interaction.

«One element of their well-being is being with peers, learning, stretching, struggling, growing and connecting, Trotter says.

She recommends parents ask doctors and teachers lots of questions, to help families weigh their personal risks and make sure schools are taking steps to keep their children safe. Schools can mitigate transmission of the coronavirus through the widespread use of masks, vaccination of faculty and staff and better air filtration and ventilation inside the buildings. Simply opening both a window and a door to create a cross-breeze can help make a difference.

Before her son started middle school last week, Trotter fired off a few emails to school administrators. The responses helped ease her mind. She says an in-person classroom experience is the right choice for her son — at least for now. She’s watching the data closely.