By Miriam Raftery

October 20, 2021 (San Diego) – East County Magazine interviewed Dr. Mark Sawyer, infectious disease specialist at Rady Children’s Hospital and an advisor to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on COVID-19 vaccines for children and booster shots.  He also serves on an advisory commission for the Governor and advised County Supervisors on COVID-19 issues. 

We asked him to address concerns raised by parents and others over vaccine mandates, to assess the safety of COVID vaccines compared to risks of COVID-19 for children and teens, and discuss the likely timetable for approvals of vaccines for young children and boosters for adults.

Dr. Sawyer revealed that hundreds of children have been treated at Rady Children’s Hospital for COVID-19, including 75 treated in the intensive care unit and another 75 diagnosed with multi-system inflammatory disease, a rare but serious complication of COVID-19 in children.  “To say that COVID is not serious in children is underestimating the virus,” he said.

May 12,  2020 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future—including the latest on COVID-19.

HEALTH

• 15 children in N.Y.C. identified with rare COVID-linked condition. More cases are likely out there. (NBC)
• Second-trimester miscarriage attributed to a coronavirus infection of placenta (CNBC)
• The coronavirus can be found in semen, raising questions of whether it can be sexually transmitted, new research says (Business Insider)
• In race for a coronavirus vaccine, an Oxford group leaps ahead (Seattle Times)
• Purplish Lesions On Feet Could Be Sign Of Virus, Say Dermatologists (Huffington Post)
• Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with covid-19, are dying from strokes (Washington Post)
• Hopes High for Anti-inflammatories to Combat COVID-19 Immune System Storms (TCT MD)
• Remdesivir drug shows promise -- but it is far from a coronavirus cure (CNN)
• Expert report predicts up to two more years of pandemic misery (CNN)
• The Dr. Fauchi of the 1918 Spanish flu (Forbes)

SCIENCE

• ‘Murder Hornets’ in the U.S.: The Rush to Stop the Asian Giant Hornet (New York Times)
• Elon Musk defies coronavirus order and asks to be arrested (The Verge)
• People Are Social Distancing Less, Cell Phone Data Show  (NPR)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.