Tanya Lewis: Hello, and welcome to COVID, Shortly, a Scientific American podcast sequence!

Josh Fischman: That is your fast-track replace on the COVID pandemic. We deliver you up to the mark on the science behind probably the most pressing questions in regards to the virus and the illness. We demystify the analysis, and assist you to perceive what it actually means.

Lewis: I’m Tanya Lewis.

Fischman: I’m Josh Fischman.

Lewis: And we’re Scientific American’s senior well being editors. That is our back-to-school particular episode. We’ll speak about why COVID testing is about to develop into a faculty drawback. 

Fischman: After which there’s some excellent news about youngsters’ threat for lengthy COVID: its fairly low.

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Lewis: When you’ve received younger youngsters, you’ve already began shopping for recent notebooks and possibly a brand new backpack: its back-to-school time. And also you’ve most likely purchased into some fear, too. 

Fischman: Faculties are massive group settings, and group settings are good locations for COVID outbreaks with the infectious subvariant BA.5 working round. You most likely received alert letters final spring saying somebody in your child’s class examined constructive, and in case your child was a detailed contact get your youngster examined too.

Lewis:  Simple fast testing is an efficient option to include outbreaks. And all of us wish to preserve youngsters and lecturers protected, and preserve colleges open.

Fischman: True, however we’re starting to see some issues arising with this containment technique.

Fischman:  Let me begin with Ashish Jha, the doctor who’s the White Home COVID response coordinator. He received on Twitter this week to say he’s able to ship his youngsters again to highschool, and wished to emphasise methods to do this safely.

Fischman: His first level was about vaccines. The pictures decrease an infection charges in youngsters, and do an excellent job at blocking critical sickness. However that is drawback primary: Youngsters aren’t getting their pictures. The absolutely vaccinated fee for youths aged 5 via 11 is simply 30 p.c. For youths beneath 5, who not too long ago grew to become eligible for pictures, its even worse: nearly one p.c.

Fischman: Issues look higher for youths 12 via 17. Their vaccination fee jumps to 60 p.c.

Fischman: However for these youthful youngsters, the low charges imply rather a lot are displaying up in class with out the primary and finest line of protection.

Lewis: In order that raises the danger of outbreaks, doesn’t it?

Fischman: It does. Which brings up Jha’s second level. One of the simplest ways to maintain unfold low and scale back outbreaks is testing. 

Fischman: And the US authorities has, to this point, purchased tens of thousands and thousands of checks and made them accessible to the general public, and people purchases created a market that inspired firms to make much more checks.

Fischman:  However that’s going to alter. Jha–the identical man pushing the significance of testing–instructed CNN that someday within the fall, the federal government goes to cease shopping for these factors, and switch that over to the business sector. Not all of sudden, however in sort of a phased withdrawal.

Lewis: You’ll nonetheless have the ability to get checks, proper?

Fischman: Sure, however much less so at free clinics and extra so at drugstores and docs’ workplaces, the common medical system. A fast antigen check package sells, retail, for about 20 to 30 bucks. The extra elaborate PCR checks value about 250 bucks. You’ll have to search out out in case your insurance coverage firm can pay for them, and submit claims, and watch for reimbursement. 

Lewis: And doubtless get into arguments with insurance coverage about how a lot they’ll pay, as a result of that’s how insurance coverage works on this nation.

Fischman: Then for those who’re one of many 26 million People who don’t have medical health insurance? You’ll be paying for checks your self.

Lewis: You’ll nonetheless have the ability to get free checks at colleges. The White Home says it is going to provide 5 million fast antigen checks and 5 million PCR checks to varsities that request them, and the faculties ought to give them to you.

Fischman: However the shift to the common well being care system goes to make the testing panorama extra difficult. With low youngster vaccination charges, you possibly can be needing a bunch of checks, and must do extra working round to get them. New Jersey simply introduced that unvaccinated college staff and staff in youngster care not must get examined routinely, and if different states observe go well with that’ll make recognizing outbreaks even harder. 

Fischman: So together with these new college notebooks and pencils, it is perhaps a good suggestion to refill on a bunch of COVID checks now, whereas they’re nonetheless fairly simple to get.

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Fischman: There’s quite a lot of scary and conflicting data on the market about lengthy COVID—particularly on the subject of kids. What do the research actually present?

Lewis: Early within the pandemic, there was good cause to be anxious. Some research confirmed the danger of lengthy COVID—lingering signs resembling fatigue, despair or complications that proceed weeks or months after an an infection—might have an effect on as many as two out of three kids who had COVID.

Fischman: That’s rather a lot. Have these findings held up over time?

Lewis: Properly, newer research present some reassurance that the danger of lengthy COVID in youngsters is far decrease. As SciAm contributor Shannon Corridor reported this week, these research had one thing lots of the earlier research lacked: a management group.

Fischman: That looks as if a reasonably large shortcoming. 

Lewis:  It’s. When researchers in contrast the speed of lengthy COVID signs in youngsters who had been contaminated to those that hadn’t, they discovered few to no variations between the 2 teams. For instance, a big research within the U.Okay. printed final yr discovered that many of the youngsters who had COVID felt higher inside six days, and greater than 98 p.c have been absolutely recovered by eight weeks. In distinction, youngsters who examined damaging for COVID truly felt worse on the four-week mark than those that examined constructive.

Fischman: That’s not what I might anticipate.

Lewis: Proper. And a research earlier this yr in Denmark, the place college kids have been strongly inspired to get examined for COVID twice every week, discovered that those that examined constructive have been barely extra doubtless than those that examined damaging to report no less than one lengthy COVID symptom two months later. However the distinction was small.

Fischman: Had been there another issues with the research?

Lewis: Properly, one difficulty is that totally different businesses use totally different definitions for lengthy COVID. The CDC defines it as signs that start a month after an infection, whereas the World Well being Group describes it as something that lasts no less than two months.

Fischman: I can see why that might be complicated. Is there anything that might clarify the signs in COVID-negative youngsters, if not COVID itself?

Lewis: Sure, researchers suspect the youngsters within the management teams may need merely been affected by different respiratory viruses. However one other chance is the pandemic college shutdowns and different societal adjustments could possibly be inflicting all kinds of bodily signs. One other research within the U.Okay. discovered {that a} whopping 40 p.c of youngsters—together with those that’d had COVID not too long ago and those that hadn’t—reported feeling anxious, unhappy or sad.

Fischman:  That’s sobering. However, stepping again, how anxious ought to mother and father be about lengthy COVID itself?

Lewis: The findings counsel that lengthy COVID isn’t an enormous threat to youngsters. However it may nonetheless be an actual wrestle for individuals who do develop it. And different analysis has proven that youngsters who’ve had COVID are at the next threat of issues like diabetes and coronary heart issues than youngsters who’ve by no means been contaminated.

Lewis: Scientists nonetheless have rather a lot to study lengthy COVID, in each youngsters and adults. However latest findings are suggesting that it will not be as frequent as some had feared.

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Lewis: Now you’re up to the mark. Thanks for becoming a member of us. Our present is edited by Jeff Delviscio and Tulika Bose.

Fischman: Come again in two weeks for the subsequent episode of COVID, Shortly! And take a look at sciam.com for up to date and in-depth COVID information.

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]