NY Investigating 85 Cases Of COVID-Related Illness In Children.
LEMON: Gov. Andrew Cuomo says New York is investigating 85 cases of coronavirus related illness in children. Officials are searching for answers after doctors originally thought children were largely not affected by the virus. Joining me now is Dr. Steven Kernie. He is the Chief of Pediatric Critical Care, Critical Care medicine at Columbia University and New York Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's hospital. Doctor, appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much. Let's talk about this. Your hospital has seen around two dozen cases of children with coronavirus related inflammatory disorder. Tell us what do you know about this illness.</s>DR. STEVEN KERNIE, CHIEF OF PEDIATRIC CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Well, you know we really didn't see it until about two weeks ago where a couple of cases popped up and we didn't at first know that it was necessarily related to coronavirus, meaning that some kids, less than half of the kids actually test positive for primary coronavirus infection but it turns out all of them when you look at the antibody testing have had evidence of a recent inspection with coronavirus. And we've just been seeing you know a couple of day and - and most of them are seriously ill and most of them need to come to the ICU which is where I work.</s>LEMON: It's obviously concerning, downright scary for parents to hear but it's important to point out that we're talking about 85 cases out of more than 335,000 in the U.S. What symptoms should parents and caretakers be looking out for.</s>KERNIE: Well, they're not subtle. The kids look sick. They typically have fever and it's pretty high fever and it goes on for a few days. There's often times a rash that that can cover various parts of the body including the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands and it's kind of raised and red. Their eyes are injected and they might have cracked lips. It's really not subtle and the kids look sick. They're vomiting. They don't eat well. You know they need medical attention.</s>LEMON: Here is what the New York governor said. Governor Cuomo said about this illness. This is earlier today. Watch this.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): It's possible that these cases were coming in and were not diagnosed as related to COVID because they don't appear as COVID. The New York state Department of Health is going to notify all the other state department of health. Every state has a Department of Health. They will notify their counterparts in the other states to put them on notice of this. Again, we've recently found this and are investigating it but it may be possible and it may even be probable that this is a situation that exists in other states and we want to make sure that they are aware of it.</s>LEMON: Do you expect to learn of more cases?</s>KERNIE: We do. You know, right now, they don't seem to be decreasing. They seem if anything maybe increasing a little bit. We still do believe it's a rare complication. You know my hospital takes kids from you know New York, Connecticut, northern New Jersey and we've seen a few dozen cases but you know the area involved. There's - there's hundreds of thousands of kids we believe in that area who've been exposed to the virus.</s>LEMON: Doctor, do you think this could have an impact on school openings?</s>KERNIE: Well, you know we don't know how long it might go on because what we've seen with this is as these cases are increasing, it's coming at a time when primary COVID infections are decreasing. So we just simply don't know how long we're going to be seeing these cases. We - this isn't a contagious disease. It's a reaction to the boys of the COVID virus and so by the time, the kids are showing the illness, in many cases they're not contagious anymore from the virus itself.</s>LEMON: Got it. Dr. Kernie, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.</s>KERNIE: Thank you.</s>LEMON: A Tyson pork plant with over 1000 cases of coronavirus has reopened but some in the community aren't happy about it including the local sheriff. He joins me next.