The ongoing Covid-19 crisis is saving some lives, but experts in England believe it has weakened the immune system in children. The children have not encountered many viral pathogens for the last 15 months. As a result, their bodies have not been able to build the immunity to fight the bugs in the post-pandemic period. Virologists are also concerned about Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a virus that causes serious lung infections in children under one. The Guardian reported that there is no vaccine for the disease.
According to experts, RSV was the most common seasonal illness before Covid. During the pandemic, masks and social distancing kept children away from the disease. But as normalcy returns, RSV may become more fatal. Children will catch the disease again when masks, social distancing, and other Covid-related protocols do away with. ‘Flu worries me, but there is a vaccine and so the most vulnerable will still have access to the vaccines,’ said Dr. Catherine Moore, a clinical scientist with Public Health Wales.
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There are still two cohorts of children under the age of five who have never had RSV and are susceptible. But they are spread over a two-year period! According to Moore, pediatrics will be severely affected, and William Irving, a professor of virology at the University of Nottingham, shares Moore’s view that, ‘If influenza returns this winter, it could be particularly bad.’
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