Hotez to MSNBC: Youths infected with coronavirus could experience ‘brain degeneration,' 'cognitive declines'
'We’re going to see waves of young people and adolescents become infected with this Delta variant in the next few weeks,' said Hotez
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Baylor Medical School's Dr. Peter Hotez predicted Wednesday that "waves of young people" would become infected with the Delta variant of the coronavirus within the next few weeks and could experience severe long-term side effects.
Speaking to MSNBC's Craig Melvin, Hotez claimed the transmission of the Delta strain would continue to accelerate unless all adults and adolescents were vaccinated. He added young people who did contract the virus could experience "grey matter brain degeneration leading to cognitive declines" and "memory loss" due to potential long-haul Covid-19.
"People who are advocating for vaccines, especially in conservative stronghold areas, are being told that they can’t, and this is part of the reason why we've had this … awful rate of vaccination among young people in places like Tennessee, where only now 20% of the adolescents are vaccinated," Hotez said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}PANDEMIC SAW WORSENING MENTAL HEALTH AMONG TEENS, YOUNG ADULTS, STUDY FINDS
"What's going to happen is we’re going to see waves of young people and adolescents become infected with this Delta variant in the next few weeks and all of it is preventable," he added.
Melvin said only a third of eligible adolescents across the U.S. had actually received the vaccine and asked Hotez what the risks were for those in areas with low vaccination rates, considering schools were going to begin opening in a matter of weeks.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Well the risks are, unless you've got all of the adults and adolescents vaccinated, transmission will continue to accelerate because this Delta variant is twice as contagious as the original lineage. So we can expect a lot of them to get Covid," Hotez said. "Now what the conservative lobby says is the death rates among young people is quite low, and that's true. But what they omit telling you is that long-haul Covid is quite common, 10 to 30 percent."
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"And now we have data from Oxford University showing a number of them will have grey matter brain degeneration, leading to cognitive declines, leading to memory loss," he added. "And these are young people who should be doing things like taking SATs and applying to colleges, or their graduating colleges, applying for their first job. It should be among the most productive time in their lives and it's now going to be squashed."