At the heights of the pandemic, particularly since 2021, many children and teenagers admitted to hospital had COVID. However, it was never clear what proportion of them were in hospital because of COVID, indicating quite severe illness, or for a different reason (such as an injury), but just happened to test positive for COVID during their admission.
The true degree of severe illness caused by COVID among those under 18 was endlessly argued over by doctors and scientists. It’s been known since early on that severe illness in children was rare and more likely in those children with serious health problems such as a chronic heart condition or a suppressed immune system. But we didn’t know how much age, poverty or ethnicity were implicated in the severity of illness.
Now we have some answers with the publication of our study in The BMJ in which we looked at all children and adolescents hospitalised with a first recorded COVID infection in England between July 2020 and February 2022.
