Coronavirus Kids Town Hall

And I'm joined by one of my two favorite kids in the world. Tess Kilmer Do you wanna say hi so sometimes I'm in Washington DC, which is where most of the law making happens but today I am in Gig Harbor because like a lot of moms and dads, I'm working from home. I live here in Gig Harbor with my wife, Jen and my two kids, Sophie and Tess and our dog Truman and I'm working every day to help folks out across our whole region, including. Kids in towns like Tacoma and Bremerton and Aberdeen and Hokie and Ocean Shores and Welfare and Bainbridge Island in Port Townsend and Forks and in Port orchard just to name a few and I'm proud to say that I was born and raised here in our in our area. I grew up in Port Angeles and as a kid, I went to Porto schools and my mom and dad were school teachers. so everybody knows that over the past few months, we've been dealing with something called the Corona virus and recently this virus has made a lot of people sick and scientists and do. Think that most people will be okay and especially kids, but some people might get pretty sick and so to help make sure that less people get sick. schools have been closed and moms and dads are spending a lot of time at home and a lot of our fun activities like baseball and girl scouts have been cancelled and we don't always get to see our kids. let's see our friends as much so I hasn't been a whole lot of fun, but the good news is that it looks like all the time we're spending at home is helping to prevent the spread of this virus and to keep people healthy. It is great news. The Corona virus is really complicated, and I also know that folks everywhere, including Tess, here have a ton of questions and that's why today I invited my friend Doctor Catherine Herz to join us for this special event. She is a pediatrician which means her full-time job is helping people stay healthy, especially kids. so she's here to help answer some of your questions. I'll try to answer some of your questions if you have a question. Can make sure to leave it in the comment box below. Let me know your name your town and your question and we'll get to as many of them as we can So okay. Doctor Herts. Thank you for joining us today. You are a pediatrician. Can you tell folks what that means and and what's your job? Sure so thank you so much for having me and hi everybody. a pediatrician is a doctor who treats only kids so. My whole job is to help kids stay healthy and well and if and when kids get sick because sometimes everybody gets sick, my job is to help them get better. so that's who I am and I am here to because I'm like, Derek said. There are a lot of questions about this new Corona virus. we are all learning so much about it and seems like we're learning more about it every day and I am here to try to help answer any questions you guys might have. Super Thanks, Doctor Herz. we're excited to get get you get to ask you a few questions. I'm also lucky to be joined by my youngest kiddo test who's going to help read some of the questions and maybe ask if you have her own if you've got some Tess, you wanna tell everybody and Doctor Herz you wanna tell Doctor Herr's how old you are and what grade you're in and where you go to school and I know that's complicated right now. I am Tess. I'm 10 years old. I'm in fifth grade and I go to school at elementary. Okay, let's let's get on to the questions. Do you wanna do to do the honors? What exactly is the coro buyers and how will you get it great question to start off with So the Corona virus is a germ have you heard of germs before? yes? Yes, there are these really small things. They're so small that our eyes can't see them, but they're all. US in our world and every once in a while they make us sick so some common germs are the kinds of germs that make us sick with colds or the flu and the Corona virus is one of those viruses I'm sorry what was the second part of your question. It was how do you get it get it right? How do we get it so the way that germs are spread and the way that the Corona virus has spread is by very small drops of fluid from our maual. And from our nose, so do you know what the fluid that we have in our mouth is called Teva. Yeah exactly so it's come to our saliva and from all the stuff that's in our nose. so when we cough or sneeze or we blow our noses or even sometimes just when we talk little tiny drops of fluid, we call them droplets get sprayed into the air and they can land on other people or they can land on surfaces. Like the screens of our phones or on doorknobs or other things that we touch a lot and then if we touch the phone or the door knob with our hands, the germs can get on our hands and we can spread them to inside our body through our nose and our mouth. So that's how germs spread. You wanna ask the next question Yeah and also matty again and Kelly Cohen say hi Madigan. Hi Kelly is there anything that I should do from getting or spreading it. I see a lot of people wearing one so I wanna I wanna take one crack at this and then I'm gonna let the doctor talk I know because the Centers for Disease Control sent to every member of Congress and healthy habits to practice whether we're at home or at school or out playing and one of the one was to if you got cess. It into a tissue or your elbow, and if you see your cuff, which if you throw it in the trash right away, as doctor said, because of the way this spreads were encouraged to keep our hands out of our mouth and our nose and our eyes and that'll help keep the germs out and we're supposed to wash our hands and use soap and water for 20 seconds right Yes and we've seen birthday to get take the that's. What am I missing? I mean, it's a great job. Derek. I'm so impressed with you and Tess. So yes, we all have this important jobs to do to keep our friends and our families and everybody around us, safe and healthy and the most important things to do are number one. What do we always recommend for everybody before you eat or after you go to the bathroom? wash your hands wash your hands Exactly And just like Derek said. It's really important to wash your hands with soap and to wash. Hands for at least 20 seconds, so yes, exactly what's 20 seconds right? There are some tricks that we use to help make sure that we're washing our hands long enough and one of them is to stay happy birthday twice. I don't know about you, but I'm getting kinda tired of singing happy birthday all the time. so one of the other things I like to do is think about other songs that I like to say and think about other 2020 second segments of those songs and kinda time it out and then I can add in a little bit of variety to my singing while washing my hands. What are you singing? Oh, gosh. Really, I mean everything from like nursery rhymes. Sometimes I throw in a little bit of snow patrols. Sometimes I have a little bit of of trying to think of. We just need to write music. Oh, yeah. there's a Moana in there, too. There's definitely some more there. you go that yup and and yeah, I don't know I went to mix it up a bit. so I feel like that might have been the toughest question you're gonna get to. I know I'm falling no-I. It's like oh gosh what am I singing so yeah, so the next thing is just like, Derek said to it's important for us when we do cough or sneeze to coughing into a tissue as much as you. I always have my handy tissue or if you don't have a have a tissue cough into your elbow, you can do a little dance move out of that and if you do have a tissue around, you do need to blow your nose or cough or sneeze into the tissue throw it throw it away right away and then wash your hands as soon as possible afterwards. you're right. A lot of people are also wearing masks. so you know how I said that the virus has spread and this little tiny droplets that come from our nose and our mouth, but the idea about the. Ask is if you have a mask in front of your nose or mouth. If I may this is one of my masks you wanna show her. I'm made. Yeah. Oh, very nice jay-z Uncle Jason got me this pro wrestling mask, but this is not the kind of we're talking about. That's not the kind of we're talking about it has to cover your nose and your mouth and if it covers your nose and your mouth, then those little tiny drops of fluid can't go very far and so it helps to. Protect everybody from getting sick. So now I have a little pile of masks that I have right by my door. It's right close to where my keys are so I don't forget to pick one up and put it on right before I leave home every time I have to leave home. So you wanna ask the next one is this the first time there was a Corona virus and how did it get here? great question. So it turns out that there are several other Corona viruses that already make people sick and they are viruses that have been around for a very long time. They've been spreading from person to person for many years and they can give people like a cold. you know it makes them feel sick for. Few days they might feel tired, they might have fever. They might have a cough, but it doesn't make us sick for a very long we get over it. This is a new Corona virus, so this new kind of Corona virus came from nature and specifically it was spreading between animals and nature called baths. Have you ever heard of batts test? You're seen batts. We're kinda cool right. They're they're little mammals and me-I Snoopy. Yeah They. Local yes, I hear what you're talking about. I mean I think they're really they're. they're really cool, but yes, they are they like to fly around a lot of times they fly around in dark places right so so this particular virus was spreading between bats and every once in a while when lots of animals are around lots of people, a germ that is spreading between the animals can jump over to people and start to infect people. So that's what happened with this. Virus's from bats to people and then it changed, and it started to spread from person to person to person without needing any animal in between. Okay, we got a question on Facebook from Cali you wanna ask if you say quarantine can you still get the Cove at 19? Yeah. It's a great question. so quarantine is our word for what we also call self isolating. Have you heard those words before Tess does that sound familiar right? so and it's what we do when people have been maybe exposed to the virus and they know they've been around somebody who've got sick with the virus. We ask them to self ISO. Stay at home and separate themselves from other people so that they don't if they come down with the virus themselves. They're not making anybody else sick. So if you are in quarantine, that usually means that you've been around somebody who has been sick recently, so it's possible that you might get sick, but you're helping to make sure that everybody around you is safe and well. does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Alright. We got one in yes. From somebody you know, look at that, so you wanna say hi to her hi Solvay how long does it take to recover from Covid- 19? Yeah so very happily Covid- 19, does not make children very sick, so you might feel a little bit tired. You might feel a little bit achy. you might feel less like eating and drinking, then you usually do and every once in a while, kids can have a little bit of a cough or a little bit of a fever with this virus with the Corona virus but usually kids. Feel unwell for a few days and they do not get very sick if older people who can sometimes get very sick with this virus. But kids do not. in fact, sometimes kids have the virus in their body takes care of it, and they don't even know they've ever had it so the problem with the problem that we worry about with kids getting coro virus is they could spread it to other people. You wanna ask the next one, someone wrote in yesterday and I said yes, when are we going to be able to go back to school? So I'll maybe maybe I'll say a little bit about this. I know it's a real bummer cuz you had to go pick up your possessions and Sophie had to pick up her stuff and it was hard cuz you're gonna graduate fifth grade right. Yeah and Sophie was gonna graduate eighth grade, so it's a bit of a bummer so it looks like we're in the state of Washington. It may vary for other States, but our our school year is all virtual for the rest of the year. The hope is that we will be able to go back and in the fall, but it's still a little bit unclear. A lot of it depends on the virus and making sure that it'll be healthy and safe for everybody to go back to the credit of our governor and our superintendent of public instruction for the state of Washington. that's their top priority is just to make sure that the kids are safe and when you get the Green light to go back to school that it'll be a safe place for you to go and the hope is that it'll be this fall with every. Continues to follow the rules and sneezing into their elbow and wash your hands and sing 20 seconds of snow patrol apparently or Moana then that hopefully will be in better shape come this fall but Doctor Herr do you have anything you wanna add to that. I think that's great. The only thing I would add is it is a real bummer and school is really important and we will get school back, but we're all making sure that it's really safe when we do go back, I would also. Like to add, I know being a kid that is really hard figuring out all the technology and figuring out how to get on to the zoom meeting because it takes a couple of tries. Let's just say that yeah and our Internet, it's not just me or are our Internet is a little shabby right. Yeah, three people on a Zoom call and one household to not go well. Oh, no. Oh, no. I know there's we got. There's so many. Right, I mean, there's so many new things that we're learning. absolutely absolutely. okay. Tess. We got a question and I think the most so what's the first thing that mom likes to do in the morning snuggle with their Truman. Yes snuggle with Truman and so we've got some folks who've been wondering, pets and humans spread the Corona virus to pets and pets spread the Corona virus to humans. I did a little bit of research on this myself cuz I was curious when we got the question and according to. Center for Disease Control, There is no evidence that animals spread the virus that causes covid- 19 that our pets are gonna give it to us and and the good news is based on the information that's available that the risk of animal spreading it people is considered to be a really low but. Is that we should treat pets like we would other human family members so if if you've been if you get sick if someone in the House come sick, then don't snuggle with Truman right. Yeah. That's the that's that's the advice. We're getting but doctor do you wanna say if that sounds about right or anything else? you wanna share there. That sounds exactly right to me? Alright not work. you wanna read that one. From Conor how many people have the coro virus, he said. Mommy knows this is tricky and complicated question. so, at least the information that we have and a lot of the how many people have it, Conor, it's a great question is driven by how many people can get a test and get tested for it. I'm in our state, we have a bit more than 14000 people who have received the test and have tested positive for it around the country. About one point one million people who have had a test and tested positive for it and doctor. I don't know if you have anything you wanna add to that again. I think you're spot-on Derek. I think it's the numbers are reflection of the people who are sick and who are tested and you are able to get a test and have a positive test result So probably these numbers are a bit of an underestimate of the total number of people. there are probably a few more people in our neighborhood. And in our country who have had the virus, we're not sure how many more. You wanna ask Gary's Garry just rode in on Facebook. How long does the survivors last and how long are people sick? Yeah. It's a great question so the virus usually the answer is it varies. It depends on the person. So, for example, in kids like I was talking about earlier kids, sometimes they don't get sick at all, so they don't even know they have the virus and it probably takes their bodies maybe somewhere between approximately. Three to seven days to clear the virus away approximately people who get really sick with the with the virus who feel unwell with the virus. it takes their bodies a little bit longer to get rid of the virus completely adults who are getting sick with the virus and feeling really unwell and maybe you need to go to the hospital. Sometimes they're sick for one to two weeks. Sometimes they're sick. For a little bit longer, but people who are getting really sick with the virus and sometimes theys for a few weeks. Doctor is always on call I know I'm always on call. I'm sorry. That's okay. Did you have more to say there to for more technological assistance from Tess? To figure it all out you wanna ask this one from Tristan who's four years old. why is asking why the Corona virus is still here. I know it's it's such a bummer, isn't it. It's such a bummer but it's still here because it is it's a virus that really likes to be shared from one person to another. so it's not easy to stop it from spreading and that's why we're all doing all of these things like staying indoors, staying away from things we love to do like going to school having play dates with our friends going to baseball games. All of those things are to try and help us to stop the spread of this virus but it. Really likes to spread from person to person so so it's still here If you wanna ask this one. Yes, we got that one yesterday well the summer help make the Corona virus. go away. Yeah. That's a great question and the answer to that is we're not sure we hope so we hope that it might help a little bit because the other Corona viruses that we do know well, they tend to spread. More easily and dry and cold weather so when the weather warms up and when the weather gets more humid, the virus does not spread so easily when the weather is like that or I should say I'm sorry other coro viruses don't spread so easily when the weather is like that, we're not totally sure if this Corona virus is going to act the same way. So we're all waiting to see we're crossing our fingers that things might get a little bit better in the summer time, but we're not totally sure yet. okay. You wanna ask the one from the power, Yes I would also like to add to that one and we had before kinda like if you leave a like if you have a Cup of water next year or bedside table and you leave it there for too long. Sometimes mold will be there and because it's a moist environment. It's more likely for there to be or an infection or some sort. but when there's. In the Cup, it's most likely that it's not gonna go. There's not gonna be any mold in there. Yeah. It's really interesting. I think part of what you're bringing up is that different germs will grow in different conditions right so gold really likes of a warm moist environment. that's great for mold to grow in what we're hoping is coro viruses. don't like that so much right so different germs grow better and different conditions, but you're but you're right. It's really smart. the the Kilmer Kidd bedrooms know of moldy cups. Yes, yes well in the Pacific Northwest. right there you go. you did. Oh, I wasn't that one. yeah go ahead from the power of family. What helps you keep a healthy immune system, so you can be less likely to catch the It's not really great question and so the things that help our bodies to stay really strong and healthy and help us keep our immune system strong our to to do. The three main things So the first thing is to eat well, so you know when your parents put vegetables on your plate and you don't wanna eat your vegetables. It's really important to eat your vegetables. They're really really good for your immune system and for helping us stay healthy fruits right, Yeah and just having a really very diet. so sometimes it's it. That's also more tricky right now right because we're all trying not to go to the shop. Go out shopping go to the store so often so so yeah, so it's really important. Much as you can to have a healthy diet the second thing is it is really important to sleep so to get a good night's sleep is really an important thing for all bodies and especially for kids bodies and so that's another thing that's really important. So I know it can be really tough when all of our daytime routines have been so jumbled and changed around so much. Sometimes I don't know about you, but sometimes my bed time comes around and I'm kind of surprised and I don't really feel like it should be bedtime yet, but I have to remind myself that. Really important still to go to sleep at at when I'm supposed to go to sleep, so I can get a good night's rest and then the third thing is it's really important to play. It's really important to do as much as you can to still run around and play in the ways that you can so all of us are learning how to do that differently too. So I don't know about your dad, but I've also tried to figure out how to do more do more exercise at home and try to make that be fun and something that I. And I think kids are all trying to do the same thing too. How can we still play with each other? How can we how can we play games? I've heard about things like flashlight tag. Have you heard about that? Tess Yeah. go fun, which I think is such a great idea and I think a lot of people are coming up with such new and different and creative ways of playing and I think that's not only really cool but also really important for staying healthy. We have a we have a we have an Xbox. And so you can either do like an Xbox live on it and so we can like play the Xbox with our friends or or we we'll just Facetime our friends and then we'll do like the different like adventure games where you have to go on the raft and we're just at the same time. Oh my gosh. that's like so much fun. Why don't I have an Xbox and we have dance party. Yeah, we have a dance party. You did. that's so great but socially distant dance party, but it was a dance party like how great is that right? What kind of songs do you? Play and do you like to sing I like Broadway music. I love. Oh my gosh I I mean I should have said. Of course, I'm singing Hamilton and I've also been listening to a lot of like comedy that my sister is obsessed with really. So the whole, the whole family is singing and dancing and then eighties Nineties music. Oh yeah. Well, those are classic. you know from you know, I've never been more proud of you than I am at this moment. do you wanna ask the question from Cole. This is a toughie. I think this is a tough one years old. Will I be able to have a birthday party in June? Oh man. I think the answer is yes, but it's gonna have to be a virtual birthday party right, so my guess is the safest way for us to have a birthday party Still in June, it's going to be by having this kind of party so but I think. A great idea to start thinking about ways to make virtual birthday parties the new thing and make that Super fun right. I know it's not the same thing and I know that's a real bummer but again, it's all so we can stay safe and healthy. I do singing lessons virtually and so this week is the fancy weeks everyone dresses up and even if that means even if that means you know if you're having a birthday party and you just say everyone can you wear a mask But whatever that is you know if that's just a simple like get together and talk and you know, dressing up or playing on the Xbox together at the same time, you know that can be a birthday party. It just has to be a little bit different. Exactly I think that's. Are such great ideas. I love it. Do you have any questions for Catherine before we get to our last question or you got them all answered. Yeah. Alright. you wanna ask the last one from Callie. Yeah should kids be afraid. You know one thing I wanna say Callie is thankfully we've got a lot of good doctors, including Doctor Herz. we've got a lot of amazing researchers that are learning more and more about this virus and about how to keep people safe and healthy and so that I think that's really. Good news and the other good thing is you know part of the reason we shared this information about how to stay healthy and to blow your nose into your elbow and wash your hands. and all of that is there's actions you can take to keep yourself safe and healthy and so I always think you know it's it's it's good to have that information so you don't need to be afraid so that you can just take actions to keep yourself safe and. But maybe Doctor Herr, you've got some ideas there too. Yeah. I you know I would say is I think it is it's normal to feel a bit sad and confused and even scared sometimes because the world really doesn't feel normal right now. right, it feels really different and so it's totally normal to have those feelings. Your job is not to worry. That's our job. That's your grown ups. job. Our job is to is to take care of you and to keep you safe and healthy. And that is what. We are all here for and it's really great that we know that there are all these things that we can do to keep all of us safe and healthy and that's your job. That's your job is to is to wash your hands and to blow your nose into your tissue and you know think about whether or not you might wanna wear a face mask. If you're old enough, we're saying everybody over to now. If you like it, you can wear a face mask when you go out when you go outside and you're gonna be around other people and. All the things that all of us are doing right now to keep everybody safe and healthy, and then there are lots of doctors and scientists who are working as fast as we can to learn as much as we can as quickly as we can about the virus to help us get through this all as fast as we can and get everybody back to school and back to your birthday parties and and back to all of those great stuff all those great things and I also would like to. Add to that too, because at the beginning of this, I was I was kinda worried cuz I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know what to do because you know this is a big thing. Everyone's staying inside. you know it's different, but I'd also like to say that you don't need to be worried about something and actually the further along this happens, the more that we know it's actually easier. so if that means that you need to ask questions to your parents or be like, hey, I'm a little bit worried about this. How do we fix that so that we don't have. Worry about this or different ways so like my dad says, Don't agonize organize and it basically means you don't need to worry you can prioritize and you can do things different steps along the way so that you don't feel stressed or worried or afraid, and it's a little different that you're I mean you haven't done. We haven't gotten to give a hug to grandma and grandpa, but you you you call them right exactly I call them yesterday. It's so it's different but it's it's different but. You can still like you can still talk to your grandparents, except you're not giving them a hug. Yeah and grandma's hug grandma's probably watching this. She's also really happy that the beard is gone. I got rid of the beard. Yeah, those koen beards are a thing so thank you so much for saying that I think it's so important that everybody hears that we are here to answer questions and we really want to hear your questions. We wanna hear your questions your concerns all the things that you're hearing about and wondering about we are here to. Help you guys answer all those questions. Well, we feel very lucky doctors that you are with us today and thank you to all the kids that we're watching. We got a lot of great questions and hello to this Schmitt family and thanks for saying hi to Tess. I but thank you Doctor Herr for the extraordinary work you're doing as we go through all of this, our doctors and our nurses and our folks on the front line at grocery stores and. Our sanitation workers and all of those folks and it's May day I think it's important to say thank you to all of the working people who are on the front lines of this doctor. Herr anything you wanna say in closing before we say goodbye to everybody. just thank you all so much for having me. It's been such an honor and a pleasure to be with you and I hope you all are doing well and figuring out ways to have fun. Alright everybody. Tess you wanna say anything in closing buy and you don't need to be worried. Alright you guys if. Have any questions that we didn't get to don't hesitate to have your mom or dad reach out to our office and we'll try to get as as many answers to you as we can thanks for watching and for what well thanks for watching but also thanks for watching. Keep washing your hands. Stay safe. Stay well and take care everybody. Buh bye. bye. Bye.