Dr. Peter Hotez, a scientist who is a frequent guest on MSNBC, said on Morning Joe Monday that there could be “small tent cities of sick adolescents and kids” in the south due to the novel coronavirus.
Hotez said that there is a “humanitarian catastrophe that’s now unfolding in the south.” He warned that the crisis has begun before school started and school could act as an “accelerant.”
“If schools act as that accelerant, you should assume that we’re going to see pediatric intensive care units all across the south completely overwhelmed,” he said. “And even a possibility of small tent cities of sick adolescents and kids, and I don’t want to see that happen. And I know nobody does.” (RELATED: Even With Breakthrough Cases, The Data Doesn’t Seem To Support Mask Mandates For Vaccinated People)
Dr. Hotez warns we’re going “to see pediatric intensive care units all across the South completely overwhelmed, and even a possibility of small-tent cities of sick adolescents and kids” pic.twitter.com/8Xn87dUIYR
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 9, 2021
Hotez said that it’s critical to inform parents that the delta variant is dangerous for children. Currently, children younger than 12 are not eligible to be vaccinated.
“We somehow have to get the word out to parents that this delta is something different,” he said. “And it is picking off young people like we’ve never seen. And we haven’t even gotten to the long COVID discussion around young people and what that means for their long-term cognitive health as well.”
The delta variant now makes up around 83% of coronavirus cases in the U.S. Health officials and President Joe Biden’s administration have pushed for more people to get vaccinated against Covid in order to try and stop the spread of the virus, and some places have re-implemented mask mandates regardless of vaccination status.