An estimated 358,000 children in California currently live with medically complex conditions, a number projected to double over the next decade as medical advances help more children with severe illnesses survive, according to data cited by pediatric nurse practitioner Raji Koppolu, a past president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.

These children often have chronic diseases, major physical or developmental limitations and recurring hospital stays. Many require care from pediatric subspecialists trained to treat conditions that affect children differently than adults, including illnesses such as sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis.

For many families, California Children’s Services serves as a key link to that specialized care. The state program helps connect eligible children with serious medical conditions to pediatric specialists, based on diagnosis and income requirements.

But the network of care is under severe pressure. Nearly 90% of pediatric specialists who participate in California Children’s Services are expected to retire within five years, according to figures cited in the report. Health care advocates warn the impact will be felt most sharply in rural and underserved communities, where families already face long drives and limited options for specialty care.

The shortage is being compounded by financial strain across the health care system. State and federal budget cuts have contributed to layoffs at California hospitals, with more than 400 hospitals reporting 3,400 health care worker layoffs as of March, and additional reductions expected.

Several factors are driving the pediatric specialist shortage. Fewer medical and nursing students are entering pediatric subspecialties, in part because of high graduate school debt and lower lifetime earnings compared with adult medicine specialties. The problem could worsen if the U.S. Department of Education moves forward with excluding nursing and other health professions from eligibility for higher levels of graduate student loans, Koppolu wrote.

At the same time, pediatric specialty care has become increasingly concentrated in larger regional medical centers. Hospital mergers and health system consolidation can make it easier to maintain patient volume and specialized expertise, but they also leave families traveling farther for care. For parents balancing work, transportation barriers and the needs of medically fragile children, those long trips can be difficult or impossible.

Federal workforce programs, including the Rural Health Transformation Program, have been identified as potential tools to recruit and retain pediatric providers in underserved areas. Such funding can also support partnerships among health systems and help test new care models aimed at improving access.

Low reimbursement rates are another challenge. Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, pays significantly less than Medicare for many services. One example cited by children’s health advocates shows that payment for placing a breathing tube in a child’s airway is about 60% lower under Medi-Cal than under Medicare, despite the complexity of the procedure.

Health care advocates say addressing the crisis will require a broader investment in the pediatric workforce. That includes support for programs such as the Golden State Pathways Program, which exposes students to health care careers earlier and helps build interest in pediatric medicine.

Supporters of expanded pediatric care also argue that investment in children’s health should not be viewed as competing with care for adults or seniors. Early treatment of chronic childhood illnesses can improve long-term outcomes and may reduce future pressure on the adult health care system.

Technology could help ease some access problems through telehealth, improved diagnostics and better care coordination. But clinicians caution that virtual tools cannot replace the hands-on expertise, judgment and relationship-based care required for children with complex medical needs.

The central concern for families is whether trained specialists will be available when children need them most. Without action to strengthen the pediatric workforce and protect access to specialty care, advocates warn, California’s most medically vulnerable children could face longer waits, farther travel and fewer treatment options.

Original source: CalMatters

The post California Pediatric Specialist Shortage Grows as Complex Childhood Illnesses Double appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Eight children were among 22 people hit by gunfire in a shooting at the end of Wednesday’s parade to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win, authorities said, as terrified fans ran for cover and yet another high-profile public event was marred by gun violence. One person was killed, a mother of two identified by her radio station as a DJ.

Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves detailed the shooting’s toll at a news conference and said three people had been taken into custody. She said she has heard that fans may have been involved in apprehending a suspect but couldn’t immediately confirm that.

“I’m angry at what happened today. The people who came to this celebration should expect a safe environment.” Graves said. Police did not immediately release any details about the people taken into custody or about a possible motive for the shootings. She said firearms had been recovered, but not what kind of weapons were used.

“All of that is being actively investigated,” she said.

It is the latest sports celebration in the U.S. to be marred by gun violence, following a shooting that injured several people last year in downtown Denver after the Nuggets’ NBA championship, and gunfire last year at a parking lot near the Texas Rangers’ World Series championship parade.

Social media users posted shocking video of police running through a crowded scene as people hurriedly scrambled for cover and fled. One video showed someone apparently performing chest compressions on a shooting victim as another person, seemingly writhing in pain, lay on the ground nearby. People screamed in the background.

Another video showed two people chase and tackle a person, holding them down until two police officers arrived.

Radio station KKFI said in a Facebook post Wednesday evening that Lisa Lopez-Galvan, host of “Taste of Tejano,” was killed in the shooting.

“This senseless act has taken a beautiful person from her family and this KC Community,” KKFI said in a statement.

Lopez-Galvan, whose DJ name was “Lisa G,” was an extrovert and devoted mother from a prominent Latino family in the area, said Rosa Izurieta and Martha Ramirez, two childhood friends who worked with her at a staffing company. Izurieta said Lopez-Galvan had attended the parade with her husband and her adult son, a die-hard Kansas City sports fan who also was shot.

“She’s the type of person who would jump in front of a bullet for anybody — that would be Lisa,” Izurieta said.

The shooting outside Union Station happened despite more than 800 police officers who were in the building and around the area, including on top of nearby buildings, said Mayor Quinton Lucas, who attended with his wife and mother and had to run for cover when gunfire broke out.

“I think that’s something that all of us who are parents, who are just regular people living each day, have to decide what we wish to do about,” Lucas said. “Parades, rallies, schools, movies. It seems like almost nothing is safe.”

Kansas City has long struggled with gun violence, and in 2020 it was among nine cities targeted by the U.S. Justice Department in an effort to crack down on violent crime. In 2023 the city matched a record with 182 homicides, most of which involved guns.

Lucas has joined with mayors across the country in calling for new laws to reduce gun violence, including mandating universal background checks.

Lisa Money, a resident of the city, was trying to gather some confetti near the end of the parade when she heard somebody yell, “Down, down, everybody down!”

At first Money thought somebody might be joking until she saw the SWAT team jumping over the fence.

“I can’t believe it really happened. Who in their right mind would do something like this? This is supposed to be a day of celebration for everybody in the city and the surrounding area. and then you’ve got some idiot that wants to come along and do something like this,” she said.

Kevin Sanders, 53, of Lenexa, Kansas, said he heard what sounded like firecrackers and then people started running. After that initial flurry, calm returned, and he didn’t think much of it. But 10 minutes later, ambulances started showing up.

“It sucks that someone had to ruin the celebration, but we are in a big city,” Sanders said.

University Health spokeswoman Nancy Lewis said the hospital was treating eight gunshot victims. Two were in critical condition and six were in stable condition, she said. The hospital also was treating four people for other injuries resulting from the chaos after the shooting, Lewis said.

Lisa Augustine, spokesperson for Children’s Mercy Kansas City, said the hospital was treating 12 patients from the rally, including 11 children, some of whom suffered gunshot wounds.

St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City received one gunshot patient in critical condition and three walk-ins with injuries that were not life-threatening, spokesperson Laurel Gifford said.

“When you have this many casualties, it’s going to get spread out among a lot of hospitals so that you don’t overwhelm any single ER,” said Jill Jensen Chadwick, news director for University of Kansas Health System, which received at least one person injured in the shooting.

Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said that he was with coach Andy Reid and other coaches and staff members at the time of the shooting, and that the team was on buses and returning to Arrowhead Stadium.

“We are truly saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred outside of Union Station at the conclusion of today’s parade and rally,” the team said in a statement.

Missouri’s Republican Gov. Mike Parson and first lady Teresa Parson were at the parade during the gunfire but were unhurt. “Thanks to the professionalism of our security officers and first responders, Teresa and I and our staff are safe and secure,” Parson said in a statement.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting and will continue to receive updates, a White House spokesperson said. White House officials were in touch with state and local leaders, and federal law enforcement was on the scene supporting their local counterparts.

Areas that had been filled with crowds were empty after the shooting, with police and firefighters standing and talking behind an area restricted by yellow tape.

Throngs had lined the route earlier, with fans climbing trees and street poles or standing on rooftops for a better view. Players rolled through the crowd on double-decker buses, as DJs and drummers heralded their arrival. Owner Clark Hunt was on one of the buses, holding the Lombardi Trophy.

The city and the team each chipped in around $1 million for the event commemorating Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs becoming the first team since Tom Brady and the New England Patriots two decades ago to defend their title.

___

Associated Press writers Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa; Jim Salter in St. Louis; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri; and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to attribute a quote about hospitals receiving patients to Jill Jensen Chadwick, not Laurel Gifford.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post At least 8 children among 22 hit by gunfire at end of Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade; 1 person killed appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

California’s “failure to protect” law holds parents responsible for “willful or negligent failure” to safeguard their children from harm or the risk of harm. Under the law, children with significant risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, as well as neglect, can become dependents of the court and placed under the supervision of child protection services (CPS). 

More than half of open cases in Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services involve domestic violence, according to a 2021 report from the UCLA Pritzker Center. Often this meant the mother, who suffered intimate partner violence, lost custody of her children for “failure to protect” — presumably for not keeping the kids safe during her abuse. 

Such family separation can be devastating for the children, and can pose real harm to their health and development. In contrast, a secure relationship with a caring adult, typically a parent, can build resiliency for a child with a history of trauma, such as exposure to violence.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services generally advises against the use of the “failure to protect” policies in domestic violence cases, as it can put the blame on survivors and even prevent them from seeking help, due to fear of losing their children. But, use of the statute continues. Notably, California doesn’t issue statewide guidance for “failure to protect” policies in cases of domestic violence. Responsibility for enforcement of the law appears to fall to individual county child welfare agencies.

I am a pediatrician and former director of the foster care clinic at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. I’ve cared for so many kids trapped in violent households. I thought CPS’s “failure to protect” policies were needed to get kids out of dangerous situations, and sometimes they are. However, I didn’t appreciate the difficult choices mothers – it’s usually women – must make to find safety when they’re entangled in violence.

I’ll be drawing on those decades of experience for a new, multimedia reporting series with CalMatters, supported by a grant from the 2023 Domestic Violence Impact Reporting Fund. I plan to interview women, who are current residents or “graduates” of a south Los Angeles shelter for domestic violence survivors, and their children. Their lived experiences will add the missing human dimension to the “failure to protect” policy dilemma. Many of these women survivors have lost and subsequently regained custody of their kids from child protective services. Some of the women also have completed journeys to recovery from substance dependency, intertwined with their history of violence. 

Some of the women want to tell their own stories, which I’ll record for audio or video stories. The women call themselves “victors not victims,” as they have carved pathways to safety. A few of their older children and teens also want to tell their stories, including a 10-year-old boy who says he wants to grow up to run a shelter to help other kids like him. 

To understand the limitations of California’s failure to protect law, I plan to speak with domestic violence advocates, as well as legal authorities, for their take on the statutes. I plan to interview Los Angeles County CPS representatives about the challenges in interpreting and applying “failure to protect” policies in individual cases. I’ll also talk with CPS representatives from select California counties, as well as a few other states, to see how they handle “failure to protect” policies. In addition, I’ll talk with experts on child health and development about the impacts of exposure to domestic violence and parental separation. 

Ideally, a better understanding of how these policies are playing out in the real word will also help identify solutions that could keep families safely together.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Do California’s ‘failure to protect’ laws really protect children or families? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

By Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

A study by scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Earthjustice found that most children in the United States use makeup and body products that may contain carcinogens and other toxic chemicals.

Results are published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.  

The study, based on more than 200 surveys, found that 79 percent of parents say their children 12 or younger use makeup and body products marketed to children, like glitter, face paint, and lip gloss.

Prior research has shown that these products often have toxic chemicals, like lead, asbestos, PFAS, phthalates, and formaldehyde in them. Toxic chemicals found in children’s makeup and body products (CMBP), like heavy metals, are especially harmful to infants and children. These chemicals, whether intentionally added or present as contaminants, have been linked to cancer, neurodevelopmental harm, and other serious and irreversible health effects.

“There is increasing evidence of harmful ingredients often included in adult cosmetics and CMBPs, and children are more biologically susceptible to the effects of toxicants,” says study co-first author Eleanor A. Medley, who co-led the study with Kendall E. Kruchten while both completed their MPHs in environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman. 

“In this context, it is important to uncover how makeup and body products are being used by children to characterize risk and improve safety,” adds Kruchten.

According to the Columbia and Earthjustice’s study, of the surveyed children, about 54 percent use CMBP at least monthly, 12 percent use CMBP daily, about 20 percent use CMBP for eight hours or more at a time, and a third of them reported unintentionally ingesting the products in the last year. Over one-third of the surveyed children are Latino and 65 percent of those children use CMBP. Compared to other racial groups, Latino children reported using CMBP more often and more for play.

This study comes as some states, like New York and Washington, consider tightening their consumer regulations around toys, makeup, and personal care products.

“Children are particularly vulnerable to adverse health risks associated with chemicals often found in makeup and body products,” says study senior author Julie Herbstman, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences and director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “In addition to dermal exposure through the skin, behavioral patterns such as hand-to-mouth activity may increase exposure to products through unintentional ingestion. Additionally, children’s small body size, rapid growth rate, developing tissues and organs, and immature immune systems make them biologically susceptible to the effects of toxicants.”

“It is alarming that industry is being allowed to sell makeup and body products marketed to children that contain extremely toxic chemicals. Findings from this study can help federal agencies better understand how children are using these products and will hopefully spur agencies to act to protect children from toxic chemical exposures,” said Earthjustice Attorney Lakendra Barajas. “Unfortunately, currently little is being done at the federal level to protect children from toxic chemicals in children’s makeup and body products.”

Co-authors include Miranda J. Spratlen, Maricela Ureño, Anabel Cole—all at Columbia Mailman—as well as Rashmi Joglekar at Earthjustice.

This work was supported in part by the Marisla Foundation.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Study Finds Most U.S. Children Use Potentially Toxic Makeup Products, Often During Play appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

DON THOMPSON | AP News

California will be the first state to require online companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday.

“We’re taking aggressive action in California to protect the health and wellbeing of our kids,” Newsom said in a statement announcing that he had signed the bill. He noted that as a father of four, “I’m familiar with the real issues our children are experiencing online.”

The bill requires tech companies that provide online services attractive to children to follow age-appropriate design code principles aimed at keeping children safe. Companies will eventually have to submit a “data protection impact assessment” to the state’s attorney general before offering new online services, products, or features attractive to children.

Facebook parent company Meta said it has concerns about some of law’s provisions but shares lawmakers’ goal of keeping children safe online.

“We believe young people should have consistent protections across all apps and online services they use, which is why we support clear industry standards in this area,” the social media giant said. It called the law “an important development towards establishing these standards.”

The bill is modeled after a similar measure in the United Kingdom. In the year since that law took effect, some of the U.S.’s most valuable technology companies “have begun to redesign their products in children’s best interests,” said Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, a co-author of the law.

“Now we can ensure they do the same for California youth — and hopefully young people across the country,” Wicks said.

The law was opposed by a coalition including the Entertainment Software Association that said it includes “an over-inclusive standard and would capture far more websites and platforms than necessary.”

It’s the second groundbreaking online protections bill signed by Newsom this week. The earlier measure requires social media companies to provide details on how and when they remove disturbing content including hate speech.

But a third proposal failed to pass the state Legislature this year. It would have banned social media companies from adopting features it knows can cause children to become addicted.

Still, Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that advocates for children, said the bill Newsom signed on Thursday is “a necessary and positive steps forward in standing up to Big Tech.”

The challenge of protecting children online resonated personally with Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and Wicks, who are both mothers of young children.

“I am terrified of the effects technology addiction and saturation are having on our children and their mental health,” Siebel Newsom said in supporting the bill, though she acknowledged that “social media and the internet are integral to the way we as a global community connect and communicate.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post California 1st with law protecting children’s online privacy appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

In light of recent action by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing that children aged six months to five years with Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage are eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations without cost-sharing. Nearly all people with Medicaid, CHIP, Basic Health Program coverage, self-insured employer-sponsored coverage, and group and individual health insurance coverage can get COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, at no cost. People with Medicare pay nothing to receive a COVID-19 vaccination, and there is no applicable copayment, coinsurance or deductible. People without health insurance or whose insurance doesn’t provide coverage of the vaccination can also get COVID-19 vaccines and their administration, including boosters, at no cost.

The FDA and the CDC recently authorized and recommended both the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children six months through four years of age and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for children six months through five years of age, marking a historic milestone in the nation’s fight against the virus. 

CMS will support and share the message about the importance of vaccinating the millions of children over the age of six months, including engaging with states, local jurisdictions, and stakeholders to get the latest information on vaccines for children to Medicaid beneficiaries and their families. This effort builds on the work that CMS has already done to require state Medicaid programs to provide coverage for standalone counseling visits about the importance of kids’ vaccination—giving families the support they need to engage with trusted community providers.

Staying up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines, including booster doses, is the best defense against severe illness, hospitalization, and death from the virus. CMS continues to explore ways to ensure maximum access to COVID-19 vaccinations.

Regardless of whether coverage is available without cost-sharing for a COVID-19 vaccination under CMS programs, currently all providers of COVID-19 vaccinations must agree to provide the vaccination at no cost to recipients, as a condition of receiving the vaccine dose from the federal government.

Information regarding the CDC COVID-19 Vaccination Program Provider Requirements and how the COVID-19 vaccines are provided through that program at no cost to recipients is available at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/vaccination-provider-support.html and through the COVID-19 Vaccine Policies & Guidance page.

Resources for physicians, partner organizations, and other trusted messengers are also available through HHS’ We Can Do This partner website at wecandothis.hhs.gov. Resources are written in plain language, are culturally and linguistically appropriate for a variety of audiences, and are available in English and Spanish.

Visit vaccines.gov (English) or vacunas.gov (Spanish) to search for vaccine locations. For resources to promote COVID-19 vaccination, visit the We Can Do This campaign.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post COVID-19 Vaccinations Covered Without Cost-sharing for Eligible Children Aged Six Months to Five Years appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

A new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) presents evidence-based strategies and approaches to preventing and responding to violence against children. Geared for practitioners, policymakers, anyone who cares deeply about this issue, the MOOC shares knowledge about forms of violence against children; how societal, community, and family-level factors affect violence; and evidence-based and strategies to end violence against children.

The course titled “INSPIRE: Seven Strategies for Ending Violence Against Children” was developed by experts at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health the Care and Protection of Children (CPC) Learning Network at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), End Violence Against Children: The Global Partnership; the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Together for Girls, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Bank, and multiple national and international civil society organizations.

The INSPIRE MOOC is taught by four faculty and staff at the Columbia Mailman CPC Learning Network: Nicolas Makharashvili, INSPIRE MOOC Content Lead and Learning Facilitator; Cassie Landers, assistant professor of population and family health; Mark Canavera, co-director of the CPC Learning Network; and Gunnar Colleen, MOOC Research Assistant.

Despite its high prevalence, violence against children is often hidden, unseen or under-reported. Its hidden nature is well documented—for example, a meta-analysis of global data finds self-reported child sexual abuse 30 times higher and physical abuse 75 times higher than official reports would suggest. An analysis of nationally representative survey data on the prevalence of violence against children in 96 countries estimates that 1 billion children globally —over half of all children aged 2–17 years—have experienced emotional, physical or sexual violence in the past year.

The immediate and long-term public health consequences and economic costs of violence against children undermine investments in education, health, and child well-being, and erode the productive capacity of future generations. Exposure to violence at an early age can impair brain development and damage other parts of the nervous system, as well as the endocrine, circulatory, musculoskeletal, reproductive, respiratory and immune systems, with lifelong consequences. Strong evidence shows that violence in childhood increases the risks of injury; HIV and other sexually transmitted infections; mental health problems; delayed cognitive development; poor school performance and dropout; early pregnancy; reproductive health problems; and communicable and non-communicable diseases.

The new course is one of a number of MOOCs developed and taught by Columbia Mailman faculty. Others include a MOOC on the global menstrual movement, Protecting Children in Humanitarian Settings and Fighting HIV with Antiretroviral Therapy: Implementing the Treat-All Approach.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Massive Open Online Course on Ending Violence Against Children Launches appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Three doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine offer strong protection for children younger than 5, the company announced Monday, another step toward shots for the littlest kids possibly beginning in early summer.

Pfizer plans to submit the findings to U.S. regulators later this week. The Food and Drug Administration already is evaluating an application by rival Moderna to offer two-dose vaccinations to tots — and set June 15 as a tentative date for its independent scientific advisers to publicly debate the data from one or both companies.

The news comes after months of anxious waiting by parents desperate to vaccinate their babies, toddlers and preschoolers, especially as COVID-19 cases once again are rising. The 18 million youngsters under 5 are the only group in the U.S. not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.

Pfizer has had a bumpy time figuring out its approach. It aims to give tots an extra low dose — just one-tenth of the amount adults receive — but discovered during its trial that two shots didn’t seem quite strong enough for preschoolers. So researchers gave a third shot to more than 1,600 youngsters — from age 6 months to 4 years — during the winter surge of the omicron variant.

In a press release, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said the extra shot did the trick, revving up the children’s levels of virus-fighting antibodies enough to meet FDA criteria for emergency use of the vaccine with no safety problems.

Preliminary data suggested the three-dose series is 80% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, the companies said, but they cautioned the calculation is based on just 10 cases diagnosed among study participants by the end of April. The study rules state that at least 21 cases are needed to formally determine effectiveness, and Pfizer promised an update as soon as more data is available.

While the vaccine effectiveness likely could change somewhat, “all of this is very positive for those parents who are looking forward to having a vaccine for their younger children in the coming months,” said Dr. William Moss of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not part of the study.

If FDA confirms the data, the vaccine could “be an important tool to help parents protect their children,” agreed Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief. But he cautioned that it’s essential to track how long protection lasts, especially against serious disease.

What’s next? FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks has pledged the agency will “move quickly without sacrificing our standards” in evaluating tot-sized doses from both Pfizer and Moderna.

Comparing the two companies’ approaches to vaccinating the littlest kids promises to be challenging.

Moderna asked FDA to authorize two shots, each containing a quarter of the dose given to adults. While that spurred good levels of virus-fighting antibodies, Moderna’s study found effectiveness against symptomatic COVID-19 was just 40% to 50% during the omicron surge, much like for adults who’ve only had two vaccine doses.

“We’ve learned in older children and adults that … we really need three doses to get protection” against newer variants like omicron, Moss said.

That’s something Moderna plans to study, and Moss said he didn’t expect the question would hold up FDA authorization of the first two doses.

Complicating Moderna’s progress, the FDA so far has allowed its vaccine to be used only in adults. Other countries allow it to be given as young as age 6, and the company also is seeking FDA authorization for teens and elementary-age kids.

The FDA has tentatively planned for its expert panel to consider Moderna’s vaccine for older kids a day before taking up the question of shots for the littlest.

If FDA clears either vaccine or both, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have to recommend whether all kids under 5 should receive the shots or only those at high risk.

While COVID-19 generally isn’t as dangerous to youngsters as to adults, some children do become severely ill or even die. And the omicron variant hit children especially hard, with those under 5 hospitalized at higher rates than at the peak of the previous delta surge.

It’s not clear how much demand there will be to vaccinate the youngest kids. Pfizer shots for 5- to 11-year-olds opened in November, but only about 30% of that age group have gotten the recommended initial two doses. Last week, U.S. health authorities said elementary-age children should get a booster shot just like everyone 12 and older is supposed to get, for the best protection against the latest coronavirus variants.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Pfizer says 3 COVID shots protect children under 5 appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials remain perplexed by mysterious cases of severe liver damage in hundreds of young children around the world.

The best available evidence points to a fairly common stomach bug that isn’t known to cause liver problems in otherwise healthy kids. That virus was detected in the the blood of stricken children but — oddly — it has not been found in their diseased livers.

“There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense,” said Eric Kremer, a virus researcher at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of Montpellier, in France.

As health officials in more than a dozen countries look into the mystery, they are asking:

— Has there been some surge in the stomach bug — called adenovirus 41 — that is causing more cases of a previously undetected problem?

— Are children more susceptible due to pandemic-related lockdowns that sheltered them from the viruses kids usually experience?

— Is there some mutated version of the adenovirus causing this? Or some other not-yet-identified germ, drug or toxin?

— Is it some kind of haywire immune system reaction set off by a past COVID-19 infection and a later invasion by some other virus?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and investigators around the globe are trying to sort out what’s going on.

The illnesses are considered rare. CDC officials last week said they are now looking into 180 possible cases across the U.S. Most of the children were hospitalized, at least 15 required liver transplants and six died.

More than 20 other countries have reported hundreds more cases in total, though the largest numbers have been in the U.K. and U.S.

Symptoms of hepatitis — or inflammation of the liver — include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, light-colored stools, joint pain and jaundice.

The scope of the problem only started to become clear last month, though disease detectives say they have been working on the mystery for months. It’s been maddeningly difficult to nail a cause down, experts say.

Conventional causes of liver inflammation in otherwise healthy kids — the viruses known as hepatitis A, B, C, D and E — didn’t show up in tests. What’s more, the children came from different places and there seemed to be no common exposures.

What did show up was adenovirus 41. More than half of the U.S. cases have tested positive for adenovirus, of which there are dozens of varieties. In a small number of specimens tested to see what kind of adenovirus was present, adenovirus 41 came up every time.

The fact that adenovirus keeps showing up strengthens the case for it playing a role, but it’s unclear how, Dr. Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, told The Associated Press.

Many adenoviruses are associated with common cold symptoms, such as fever, sore throat and pink eye. Some versions — including adenovirus 41 — can trigger other problems, including inflammation in the stomach and intestines. Adenoviruses previously have been linked to hepatitis in children, but mostly in kids with weakened immune systems.

Recent genetic analysis has turned up no evidence that a single new mutant version of the virus is to blame, said Dr. Umesh Parashar, chief of the CDC group focused on viral gut diseases.

Adenovirus infections are not systematically tracked in the U.S., so it’s not clear if there’s been some recent surge in virus activity. In fact, adenoviruses are so common that researchers aren’t sure what to make of their presence in these cases.

“If we start testing everybody for the adenovirus, they will find so many kids” that have it, said Dr. Heli Bhatt, a pediatric gastroenterologist who treated two Minnesota children with the liver problems.

One was a child who came in nearly five months ago with liver failure. Doctors couldn’t figure why. Unfortunately, “not having a cause is something that happens,” Bhatt said. Roughly a third of acute liver failure cases go unexplained, experts have estimated.

Bhatt said the second child she saw got sick last month. By that time, health officials had been drawing attention to cases, and she and other doctors began going back and reviewing unexplained illnesses since October.

Indeed, many cases added to the tally in the last few weeks were not recent illnesses but rather earlier ones that were re-evaluated. About 10% of the U.S. cases occurred in May, Butler said. The rate seems to be relatively flat since the fall, he added.

It’s possible that doctors are merely discovering a phenomenon that’s been going on for years, some scientists said.

Another possible explanation: COVID-19.

The CDC recently estimated that, as of February, 75% of U.S. children had been infected by the coronavirus.

Only 10% to 15% of the children with the mysterious hepatitis had COVID-19, according to nasal swab tests given when they checked into a hospital, health officials say.

But investigators are wondering about previous coronavirus infections. It’s possible that coronavirus particles lurking in the gut are playing a role, said Petter Brodin, a pediatric immunologist at Imperial College London.

In a piece earlier this month in the medical journal Lancet, Brodin and another scientist suggested that a combination of lingering coronavirus and an adenovirus infection could trigger a liver-damaging immune system reaction.

“I think it’s an unfortunate combination of circumstances that could explain this,” Brodin told the AP.

Butler said researchers have seen complex reactions like that before, and investigators are discussing ways to better check out the hypothesis.

He said it was “not out of the realm of plausibility, at all.”

A Case Western Reserve University preprint study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, suggested children who had COVID-19 had a significantly higher risk of liver damage.

Dr. Markus Buchfellner, a pediatric infectious diseases doctor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was involved in the identification of the first U.S. cases in the fall.

The illnesses were “weird” and concerning, he said. Six months later, “we don’t really know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Theories emerge for mysterious liver illnesses in children appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Kids ages 5 to 11 should get a booster dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, advisers to the U.S. government said Thursday.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention quickly adopted the panel’s recommendation, opening a third COVID-19 shot to healthy elementary-age kids — just like what is already recommended for everybody 12 and older.

The hope is that an extra shot will shore up protection for kids ages 5 to 11 as infections once again are on the rise.

“Vaccination with a primary series among this age group has lagged behind other age groups leaving them vulnerable to serious illness,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, in a statement.

“We know that these vaccines are safe, and we must continue to increase the number of children who are protected,” she said.

Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s kid-sized booster, to be offered at least five months after the youngsters’ last shot.

The CDC takes the next step of recommending who actually needs vaccinations. Its advisers debated if all otherwise healthy 5- to 11-year-olds need an extra dose, especially since so many children were infected during the huge winter surge of the omicron variant.

But the U.S. now is averaging 100,000 new cases a day for the first time since February. And ultimately, the CDC’s advisers pointed to growing evidence from older kids and adults that two primary vaccinations plus a booster are providing the best protection against the newest coronavirus variants.

“This always perhaps should have been a three-dose vaccine,” said Dr. Grace Lee of Stanford University, who chairs the CDC’s advisory panel.

The booster question isn’t the hottest vaccine topic: Parents still are anxiously awaiting a chance to vaccinate kids under 5 — the only group not yet eligible in the U.S.

Dr. Doran Fink of the Food and Drug Administration said the agency is working “as rapidly as we can” to evaluate an application from vaccine maker Moderna, and is awaiting final data on the littlest kids from rival Pfizer. The FDA’s own advisers are expected to publicly debate data from one or both companies next month.

For the 5- to 11-year-olds, it’s not clear how much booster demand there will be. Only about 30% of that age group have had the initial two Pfizer doses since vaccinations opened to them in November.

CDC adviser Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University said health authorities must put more effort into getting youngsters their initial shots.

“That needs to be a priority,” she said.

Thursday’s decision also means that 5- to 11-year-olds with severely weakened immune systems, who are supposed to get three initial shots, would be eligible for a fourth dose.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech currently make the only COVID-19 vaccine available for children of any age in the U.S. Those ages 5 to 11 receive a dose that’s one-third the amount given to everyone 12 and older.

In a small study, Pfizer found a booster revved up those kids’ levels of virus-fighting antibodies — including those able to fight the super-contagious omicron variant — the same kind of jump adults get from an extra shot.

Vaccines may not always prevent milder infections, and the omicron variant proved especially able to slip past their defenses. But CDC cited data during the omicron surge that showed unvaccinated 5- to 11-year-olds had twice the rate of hospitalization as youngsters who got their first two doses.

Health authorities say for all ages, the vaccines are still offering strong protection against COVID-19′s worst outcomes, especially after a third dose.

Some especially high-risk people, including those 50 and older, have been offered the choice of a second booster, or fourth shot — and the CDC on Thursday strengthened that recommendation, too, urging anyone who’s eligible to go ahead and get the extra dose.

Still to be decided is whether everyone will need additional shots in the fall, possibly reformulated to offer better protection against newer coronavirus variants.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post CDC urges Pfizer booster for children ages 5 to 11 appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.