Local experts explain Covid’s effects on teens
By Victoria Locke
Covid-19 is plastered across the media, with headlines that scream the rising number of cases, new developments in vaccines, and the effect it’s had on older generations.
Very rarely though, do we see the effect it’s having on younger generations.
After interviewing Dr. Lindsay Keegan, Ph.D., and Dr. Valerie Vaughn, MD, MSC, FACP, two researchers from the University of Utah, I gained a more extensive knowledge of how this virus works, how it’s affecting people like you and me, and what the future of Coronavirus looks like in this country.
Dr. Lindsay Keegan, Department of Epidemiology, University of Utah
Dr. Lindsay Keegan is an assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah, who, even before Covid-19, has been researching and attempting to understand how diseases spread and how to control them for the last ten years.
With her extensive knowledge as not only a researcher but also as an assistant professor, I asked about the effect of Covid-19 she’s seen in students and if they are super-spreaders of the disease.
“We’re seeing in high schoolers and college-age students that more than half of the people who get covid are asymptomatic, which means you don’t know it and you could feel perfectly fine. For you, it’s okay, so you don’t wear your mask, you don’t social distance, you think ‘oh it’s no big deal and I’ll go hang out with 20 of my friends.’
This is how you spread Covid-19,” Dr. Keegan said. “so if you are careful, you’re wearing your mask, and washing your hands, then there’s no reason high schoolers have to be super-spreaders.”
As a hospital physician at the University of Utah, Dr. Valerie Vaughn takes care of hospitalized patients that come in with medical issues which include Covid-19. Along with that, she is also a health services researcher, which means doing a lot of work trying to understand diseases and how to improve outcomes, specifically in patients who are hospitalized.
I also asked her how the younger generations have been affected to which she said, “young people are definitely more likely to be asymptomatic, but I still don’t think we have a good understanding of what the long-term effects of that can be.”
Dr. Valerie Vaughn, hospital physician at the University of Utah.
However, Covid has been observed to cause problems later on, specifically more in young people. While they may experience no symptoms, when one normally would during the two-week period, Dr. Vaughn said, “we’ve definitely seen people who didn’t have symptoms initially but later on, developed problems breathing or autoimmune conditions where the body kind of attacks itself.”
Dr. Keegan had more to say on the idea of the body attacking itself.
“The interesting thing is that the body essentially attacks itself after the disease. After you’ve recovered from the Coronavirus, your body can attack itself and cause long term damage.”
Similar to what Dr. Vaughn said, Dr. Keegan stated this is especially prevalent in youth. She referred to it as a cytokine storm, in which the body ends up being the thing that kills itself, not the disease. Essentially, “it’s your body reacting and overreacting.”
From this cytokine storm, there have been high amounts of high schoolers and children who develop long term heart problems, and according to Dr. Keegan, even some “college athletes can’t even walk around the block for months” after the disease. It can completely alter the course of the rest of their lives.
Dr. Keegan continued to stress throughout the interview that being asymptomatic only means it won’t affect you at the moment because of the likelihood that it may lead to long term health impacts. No matter what, though, even if you are never physically affected by Covid-19, you will probably affect those around you.
“One of the things that you have to think about,” Dr. Keegan said, “is you may be infecting your teachers, you may be infecting your parents. You don’t want to be the one to give your parents or grandparents Coronavirus and have them pass away.”
Dr. Vaughn, while working in the hospital, has seen first hand the result of passing the disease onto others.
“I’ve seen just horrible things with parents dying and I mean, it’s awful in so many ways to lose your parents, but then also knowing that it was probably you that got them sick. The devastation I’ve seen in kids when they realized that they were a part of it.”
““Coronavirus is a much bigger problem than just yourself.” – Dr. Lindsay Keegan”
“We’re all like links together in a chain” Dr. Keegan said. “You have to remember that you might not be impacted, but by passing it on, it could lead to that person in the hospital.”
We must be caring enough not to spread it to those that we love or even to total strangers. It is essential in this dire time the world has fallen into, to socially distance, wear your masks, and continue following Covid-19 guidelines.
Not only are the physical limitations a scary part of Covid, but Dr. Vaughn also mentioned PTSD being a reoccurrence in cases.
“About half of patients say that they’ve had emotional distress and about a quarter of them actually have symptoms of PTSD. Waking up hot and sweaty with anxiety attacks, are common. Part of that is most likely from being in the hospital by yourself because right now there are visitor restrictions. We’re all struggling with not being able to see our families for the holidays, but imagine being in the hospital at death’s door and not being able to see your family.”
Dr. Keegan connected Covid-19 to a freight train, “the faster it’s moving, the harder it is to stop. So if it’s barely chugging along, it’s really easy to pump the brakes, but right now we’re going 60 miles an hour, so to get back to where we were in the summer, it’s going to be a really long time to get there.”
In order to get back to somewhat normal, it takes work from everyone. Some schools are open, Judge being one of them, while other schools are still closed. However, one thing has continued through it all-- extracurricular activities.
“A lot of the Covid cases are linked not to attending school where people are socially distanced with masks on, but to the after school activities,” Dr. Vaughn said. She believes that schools themselves have done a very good job with keeping students safe, but by allowing and continuing activities after school, students are at a much higher risk.
“It sends a message that [students] are safe, and that’s not really true. If you’re exercising, if you’re singing, if you’re in whatever extracurricular you have, you’re more likely to be close, you’re more likely to take off your mask and you’re more likely to be exposed to people.”
Overall though, the key to maintaining the utmost safety through all areas of your lives, is frequent testing for Covid-19.
When asked about what Dr. Keegan felt was the best system for schools to be in, whether that be all online, all in-person, or a hybrid as Judge offers now, she said that going all online was not the answer. “The most ideal system is one in which testing becomes frequent, because for a lot of kids, the only food they get is at school and many don’t have a computer at home or wifi in general at their house.”
“If you move people all online, then it may be leading to other issues. The way to get around that is to make it equitable and test everybody, then isolate people as soon as they’re positive. If every 30 days, 90% of those who have it on the first testing day, get it and then isolate, then 90% of people who were exposed get tested then they isolate also. The probability of missing somebody twice, is 10% of 10%, which is 1%.”
No matter what though, the system isn’t going to be perfect. Judge continues to advance its testing and safety measures around the school, and as a community we’ve stayed safe and effective in preventing the spread of Covid. It seems hard right now, but Coronavirus is not going to last forever. We will be able to go back to normal eventually, but only when everyone begins to do everything in their power to keep those around them safe and healthy.
Dr. Keegan recommends that we all take this winter, a time of extremely high risk, “to go on hikes and go skiing. If you want to hang out, drive up next to somebody else’s car and sit in your car in the parking lot to talk to each other.”
We don’t need to be isolated in this time, and we shouldn’t be taking this physical distance for granted because if you or your loved ones are hospitalized then you will be forced to be isolated.
“Keep in mind that it’s not just your life at risk, but it’s also your parents and your grandparents and your teachers that you’re putting at risk by doing risky behavior.”
Finally, Dr. Keegan gave students at Judge a piece of advice, that should be taken into consideration by all of us. “This isn’t going to last forever and if you have to double down on not going to your grandma’s house for Christmas this year, it’s not going to be forever. However, if you do infect them with Covid, and they die, that is forever.”
Remember to keep in mind not only your health but everyone’s around you. This is a scary time, but we as a community at Judge will get through it.
