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COVID-19: “We’re seeing more kids in emergency departments,” says Dr. James Simmons

Dr. James Simmons, Hospitalist Nurse Practitioner, joins Yahoo Finance to talk about the state of the pandemic in his home state of California and beyond. Plus, how Omicron is impacting children.

Video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

EMILY MCCORMICK: Welcome back to "Yahoo Finance Live." We're tracking the latest on the virus as the US crosses the grim milestone of a record more than one million new daily COVID cases. For more, we have Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani joining us now.

And, Anjalee, I know you're tracking a number of developments, including the latest surge in cases coming out of the holiday season and updates from President Joe Biden and the White House COVID-19 task force. What are the details on both?

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ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right, Emily. We just heard it from President Joe Biden not too long ago, reinforcing really the plan that he and his administration have created to battle the Omicron's variant. And that includes things like sending staff to surging-- to hospitals to help with surgeons, as well as the focus on testing, masking, as well as the vaccines, to continue to push for more vaccinations as we still have many unvaccinated in the country.

I want to play a clip for you about specifically the focus on ventilation and the need in schools. And that's really important, as we know that the CDC and other health agencies have started to really emphasize just how this virus transmits. Take a listen.

JOE BIDEN: We provided the states with $130 billion with a B-- billion dollars to specifically keeps our students safe and schools open; funding for ventilation, ventilation systems in the schools; social distancing in classrooms, even larger classrooms; on buses, and everything from bus drivers to buses, the actual bus. There are additional-- in all this process, we also, back then, included an additional $10 billion for testing for schools.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That emphasis also on testing for schools, we know that testing continues to be a point of frustration, as he also said. And we're hearing now about an increase in prices at some retailers like Walmart and Kroger, where the price has jumped from a basically approved low based on a contract with the White House. And that has now expired.

So we've seen reports in recent weeks of really spiking prices for convenient at-home tests, including the Abbott one, which is one of the most popular, as high as $50 or $60. But we're starting to monitor a little bit more of that. So all of that happening, as you mentioned, as we continue to see spiking cases. Back to you.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Yahoo Finances Health Reporter Anjalee Khemlani, thank you so much for that breakdown. Let's stick with this topic with our next guest. Dr. James Simmons is hospitalist nurse practitioner in Los Angeles. James, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Walk us through what you're seeing right now in terms of the numbers and severity of the COVID-19 cases where you're practicing on the West Coast.

JAMES SIMMONS: You know, it's a really interesting picture right now in terms of what's going on with those COVID numbers because we are, just like everywhere else, starting to see numbers increase. But it's different from last time around. You know, I feel like I do have to take this moment to sort of give a shout out to the fellow, you know, health care providers, as well. We are-- this sense of deja vu, this overwhelming sense of, oh my gosh, here we go again, has certainly crept up.

But the profile of patients this time is at least a little bit different. This is-- you know, I think, early on, the messaging was these are individuals who are older. They are sicker. They might have underlying health conditions. Now, of course, that's change just because Omicron is so much more incredibly contagious and impacting so many more people.

So we are seeing the numbers go up. I will say, though-- and this is just my anecdotal experience-- that we're seeing a lot of patients in the hospital right now who are incidentally testing positive for COVID, meaning they've actually come into the hospital for something else, or they were already there. Then they're testing positive for COVID. Whether or not those COVID issues become an issue for them on top of what they are hospitalized for, in general, you know, varies patient to patient.

So we are seeing a big uptick of numbers of people coming into the emergency department. A lot of times, that's for testing because that's one of the few places where a lot of folks know that they can get tested. Not all of those patients are being admitted like they were the first time around a year ago, pre-vaccine, when so many people came in symptomatic with COVID, and we had to admit them at that time. So it's really scary at this point, however, because I do think that the numbers are going to continue getting worse at least for a couple of weeks.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Dr. Simmons, a lot of parents are very worried about, especially very young children, when we hear on the news-- and we are the news. We're part of media-- for instance, an empty shelf becomes the national headline. Stores are empty, when, in fact, stores are full. Now we're hearing headlines about pediatric wards filling up with children. Put this into context. Parents can take the truth. What are we seeing in regards to children? And the children you might be seeing with COVID-19, are there underlying conditions?

JAMES SIMMONS: Excellent point. You know, I think there's a couple of things to remember here when it comes to kiddos. Poor thing getting her vaccine there. Good for her. So listen, kids' airways are not adult airways. So this variant is also different than the first time around. We have to think about this from a volume standpoint. So so many people are getting Omicron right now. In fact, it's probably going to touch all of us at some point sooner than later.

When kids get these upper respiratory viral illnesses, they don't react to it like adults. It's really important for us, adults, to remember-- here's one of those hard truths that we can understand as parents-- kids are not small adults. They react differently.

And so you get upper respiratory viral illnesses of any sort. And they can be tougher on kids than they are as an adult because of a multitude of different reasons, you know. Just simply the structure of the upper airway in kids, you know, underdeveloped immune systems, all of those different things.

So when we look at Omicron, it's not necessarily that we're seeing it's playing out as any more dangerous than previous variants for kids. We just don't know that yet. But we're looking at a different-- wholeheartedly different volume situation, and that so many more kids are getting infected. And those kids who were going to have a tough time with the primarily upper respiratory viral illness situation are going to have a tough time with Omicron, as well.

So all of that I say is to say, yes, we are seeing more kids in emergency departments in children's hospitals and emergency departments in other hospitals that are not pediatrician-focused. We are seeing those rising numbers. We are seeing kids come in and get sick. And, you know, if you've ever heard a kid with a croupy cough, that can be dangerous. And that's really tough for those kids.

So we are seeing those numbers go up. I don't think we're hitting the panic button quite yet. But you can even look at places like Texas Children's Hospital, the largest children's hospital in the country right now. They are seeing a surge of patients. And a lot of those kiddos are coming in, needing to be admitted, and staying for longer because they really are sick. So this is a volume issue because everyone's going to be touched by this, even our kids.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Dr. Simmons, I think you're echoing what a doctor on yesterday mentioned to us, as well, which is that we should all virtually be expected to be exposed to the Omicron's variant in the next couple of weeks. Given this, how would you recommend that those who think that they may have been exposed or who are concerned about exposure conduct a testing regimen to see whether they've been infected and whether they're contagious?

JAMES SIMMONS: Yeah, this is so tough because testing is really something of an issue right now. I quite literally have a family member who is a pediatric nurse, who is out trying to get tested right now to see if it's important-- you know, if it's-- if she's going to be able to go to work tomorrow simply because she had an exposure with a different family member outside of our home.

So and this is a health care worker who doesn't have testing available to them at their hospital, right? These are really difficult situations for a lot of folks. I mean, these lines that you're showing here, I know that that says it was in December of last year. But it's still happening right now everywhere. Testing is really, really a big issue.

That being said, you know, LAUSD here, the school district here in Los Angeles, is requiring testing for all students and staff before they go back to school. But they pushed that date back until January 11, hopefully, to give folks time for testing. You know, the testing window for Omicron is a little bit different, you know, than in previous variants because, you know, your time to getting symptoms after exposure is a little bit shorter. And there is those confusing CDC guidelines, as well.

So I do think it is important for folks, you know, if you have a known exposure and you have some symptoms, go ahead and start that five-day quarantine like the CDC has recommended at least at this time. We'll see what their-- you know, their changes to their announcements might come this afternoon. Get tested as often as you can and until you have the negative rapid test. You, at the very least, if you're vaccinated and boosted, need to wear that mask like the CDC recommends after the five days once you leave your house. Otherwise, if you're still testing positive, you're still contagious to folks from that rapid test.

So try to get tested as much as possible. I know it's very, very difficult. But any way you can to get your hands on those tests to make sure that you keep those around you safe, it's important to do.