Another day of social distancing, another newsletter. Keep on sending me those emails, links and memes. If you missed a prior newsletter, you can find it   here . And continuous thanks for staying home, staying safe, washing hands and masking up!
  
Coronavirus concerns by age today. When it comes to COVID-19, we all know kids don’t tend to get as sick as adults, especially older adults. But they do face significant issues secondary to the pandemic…
  • Among younger kids, home-based injuries and poisonings are up. When it comes to kids under age five, Poison Control has fielded 20% more calls in quarter 1 of 2020 compared with the year before, largely driven by calls about cleaners and disinfectants. The CDC hasn’t said this is a direct result of coronavirus, but the agency is definitely connecting those dots.
  • Regarding middle schoolers, it’s time to start talking about vaping again. This was a humongous issue last year, but it rapidly fell off the front pages as COVID surged. There’s no data yet, but common sense tells us that vaping may increase the risk of an infection that already directly targets the lungs, particularly among teens. This follows some damning data about tobacco and waterpipe smoking already in circulation… and some subsequent advice about how to quit, especially now. My follow up question – which hasn't been addressed by the research yet – is this: are addicted tween and teen vapers finding it so difficult to access vape devices while everyone is sheltering at home together that their use is on the decline?
  • And now the teens. That whole vaping conversation from the bullet point above applies here too, frankly even more so. But teens face another (potential) challenge: managing the household if adults get sick. Two teenagers – Emma, who lives in Hong Kong, and her cousin Jacob, based in New Jersey – are trying to get in front of this by offering teens a checklist of simple steps if a family member tests positive. Check it out!
 
Indeed, parenting through pandemic is challenging. But on the days when you are feeling most frazzled, the Spaniards have it worse.  Kids in Spain can’t go outside .
 
Now onto some virus-specific content. Here’s one change you might have missed: late last week, the  FDA  quietly added a line to its website stating that people do not need to wipe down their groceries after shopping. The exact statement reads “Again, there is no evidence of food packaging being associated with the transmission of COVID-19. However, if you wish, you can wipe down product packaging and allow it to air dry, as an extra precaution.” The  CDC  has a similar statement up on its site. So, I guess disregard that video I posted a couple of weeks ago about the whole 20-minute disinfection process?! Though if you like to feel some semblance of control in this moment where it's easy to feel very little elsewhere, then keep on wiping.
 
And before I end for today, I feel the need to address the evolving coronavirus antibody debate because it’s going to continue to dominate headlines this week (and probably the next and the next). This article takes  a deep dive into antibody testing . The bottom line is that as of today, there are 120 antibody tests floating around the US, only four of which have been FDA approved with emergency use authorization. The dozens of tests all look for different types of antibodies in different ways, and no one has agreed quite yet how to measure a person’s functional immunity to coronavirus. It’s a mess, with a long way to go before being sorted out. So if you are one of the folks who has reached out to me to ask whether you should do a particular antibody test, this is why my advice has largely boiled down to:  only if it’s FDA-approved and maybe wait a few more weeks unless you’ve got an urgent reason to do it now.  As one of the docs interviewed in the NYT story says, “We’re not even in the second inning of a nine-inning game at this point.” And if you think this is just a US problem, think again – the same antibody testing issues exist across the globe.
 
Meme time. As he says, you’re welcome.