We Have No Idea How Deadly Delta COVID Will Be for Kids

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Even as pediatric hospitalizations rise ahead of the start of the school year, some states are continuing to prioritize fighting mask mandates over kids’ health.

Hundreds of kids are hospitalized in Texas (247) and Florida (207) with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services—but their governors refuse to backtrack on mask mandate bans as school starts. Meanwhile the governor of Arkansas, where 32 kids are currently hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases, has repeatedly called his signing of a ban on mask mandates an “error” and called for the legislature to overturn it. 

Making things worse is that there have been simultaneous outbreaks of other respiratory infections that affect children, including croup and respiratory syncytial virus. All of this is adding up to even more stress on hospital systems around the country. 

At least 416 children had died from COVID-19 as of last week, according to the CDC, a fraction of the more than 617,000 deaths in the U.S. total. But while children have generally not suffered the same sort of effects of the coronavirus as adults, the infectious nature of the Delta variant has resulted in an explosion of cases all-around. 

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat whose state was crushed by the Delta variant early on, reinstated Louisiana’s statewide mask requirement earlier this month. He said Friday that more than 6,000 kids in his state had tested positive over the previous week. 

“So in light of that, and the CDC recommendations, the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the information that we've received here from the Office of Public Health and leading Louisiana pediatricians, and quite frankly, as a parent myself, I have to ask — why wouldn't we send our kids to school with a mask on?” Edwards said last week.

But the Republican governors of two neighboring states don’t agree. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order last month banning local school boards from implementing mask mandates ahead of the start of the school year. And after officials in several school districts said they would challenge the ban by implementing their own mask mandates, DeSantis’s office told CBS4 on Monday that it would go as far as to withhold the paychecks of school superintendents and board members.

“At no point shall I allow my decision to be influenced by a threat to my paycheck; a small price to pay considering the gravity of this issue and the potential impact to the health and well-being of our students and dedicated employees,” Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvahlo told CBS 4. 

In Texas, nearly 9,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, pediatric ICU beds in Dallas County are at capacity, and an 11-month-old was airlifted 170 miles from Houston to Temple treat her infection because there were no hospital beds available in the Houston area. Gov. Greg Abbott announced new measures to deal with the surge, including asking Texas hospitals to postpone elective procedures and bringing in healthcare workers from out of state. 

But so far, he has refused to rescind an executive order banning mask mandates, with a spokesperson telling the New York Times Monday that Abbott “​​has been clear that we must rely on personal responsibility, not government mandates” to end the pandemic. 

Abbott, who is up for re-election next year, is notably facing a primary challenge from former state GOP chair Allen West, who has criticized his handling of the pandemic as somehow too restrictive. 

While Abbott and DeSantis have refused to re-implement a mask mandate, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is continuing a mea culpa media tour and admitting that signing a bill banning mask mandates in May was a mistake.  

“Facts change, and leaders have to adjust to the new facts and the reality of what you have to deal with,” Hutchinson told CBS Sunday. “Whenever I signed that law, our cases were low, we were hoping that the whole thing was gone, in terms of the virus, but it roared back with the Delta variant.” 

More than 1,200 people are currently hospitalized in Arkansas, and the state’s caseload is rapidly approaching its winter peak. While the Arkansas legislature did not take up Hutchinson’s request to repeal the mask mandate ban, a county judge blocked the state from implementing the ban last week. 

“It was an error to sign that law. I admit that,” Hutchinson added. “Thank goodness, if the legislature did not act this week, which they didn’t, the court stepped in and held that as unconstitutional, and now we have that local flexibility for schools to make their decision to protect the children based upon the unique circumstances of their district.”