Malia Jones, author of A Kids Book About COVID-19, talks through the facts of COVID-19, dispels some of the myths, and shares ways we can all help one another.
Malia Jones, author of A Kids Book About COVID-19, talks through the facts of COVID-19, dispels some of the myths, and shares ways we can all help one another.
A Kids Book About COVID-19 (view book)
Full Book Description:
The world has never seen anything like COVID-19 before: it's affecting everyone! This book is written by a scientist who studies disease outbreaks and is meant to provide some answers and start discussions about what each of us can do to help keep our communities safer during the coronavirus pandemic.
About the Author:
Malia Jones is an academic, a researcher, a social justice advocate, a great lover of maps, a partner, and a mom. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where she works in a university setting as a social epidemiologist studying how infectious diseases spread in human populations.
*If you want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast or if you have a question you’d like us to consider, have a grownup email us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com and we’ll send you the details.
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
S1 E05, Malia Talks About COVID-19
[INTRODUCTION]
Matthew: What is COVID-19?
Sydney: COVID stands for Coronavirus disease. Sometimes you won’t even notice that you have it. And other times you will notice that you have a fever or something. And it affects adults more than kids.
Demetria: Well, I don’t really like it in two ways because you can’t go shopping in the stores. (Or at least it’s hard to). And second, I don’t like it because you have to wear a mask and sometimes it gets wet and it’s not time to go home yet and I don’t like that very much.
Malia: COVID-19 is a disease. It's a new disease to humans that started circulating in humans sometime at the end of 2019. It's caused by a virus. The virus is called SARS-CoV-2. And when you get sick from it the disease you get is called COVID-19.
Matthew: Welcome to A Kids Book About, The Podcast! I’m Matthew, your host. The voices you heard at the top of our show were from Sydney, Demetria, and Malia.
Each week we talk about the big things going on in your world with a different author from our A Kids Book About series.
[MEET OUR GUEST]
Malia: Hi, my name is Malia Jones. I'm a scientist and a researcher. I study viruses and how they spread in populations, which makes me a social epidemiologist, not to be confused with a friendly hippopotamus. I'm also the mom of two boys. They're ages six and 10. And we've been working from home and going to school from home for the past year, just like many of you. I am the author of A Kids Book About COVID-19.
Matthew: So… COVID. Virtually every person on the planet has been affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic. And those living in a country not reporting COVID cases, most of which are islands in the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans… are aware of how the pandemic is affecting the rest of the world.
“Pandemic” is a word that is used when a disease spreads across a whole country or the world. This pandemic has affected people’s jobs, their access to resources like food and housing, and has generally made life a whole lot more difficult for folks, kids included.
Nathan in Maryland sent us a clip.
Nathan: Well, I guess virtual school is fine, but it comes with its own problems, too. Well, sometimes I’m kind of embarrassed to say this. I kind of don’t pay attention. That kind of stuff.
Matthew: Of course, many are also finding the positive in tough situations.
Nathan: I get to be on a screen a lot more! That’s for sure!
Matthew: A Kids Book About COVID-19 was released as a free ebook in March of 2020, just as the pandemic was first affecting schools in the U.S. The print book came out several months later, but Malia and the team at A Kids Book About knew that kids and grownups were looking for answers to their questions about COVID-19 and so it was important to help as soon as possible.
Malia: We wrote the book very quickly. We wrote it in less than a week, and it was available as a free downloadable ebook in March for anyone to download and get their questions about the pandemic answered.
And I'll, I'll also tell you that, you know, I wrote the book for kids, but at that time I was also kind of writing for their parents, uh, because there, there were, and still are a lot of questions about just the real basics of this disease among grownups, as well as among children.
Matthew: Today we’re going beyond the basics, getting down and dirty (or maybe down and snotty?) about what COVID-19 is, how it spreads, who it affects, and how you can help. And I guarantee you’ll leave this episode with at least one fact you can teach a grownup, because this is science! And if there’s one thing that’s true about science, it’s that there are always new things being learned and discovered.
First up? I promised you snot.
Malia: COVID-19 spreads through what are called respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets is basically a science-y word for little pieces of snot and spit that come flying out of your mouth when you breathe or sneeze or sing or shout. And if someone who is sick with COVID-19 spews those respiratory droplets out at you and you accidentally breathe them in, then you can get sick.
Matthew: Yyyyyep!
Malia: It's gross! This is actually how a lot of diseases spread, not just COVID-19. So if you think that's gross, just think about all the, all the colds and little bugs that you get every, every year when you're in school.
The other question that I get constantly is, “Can you get it from surfaces?” Like if I touch something and then later somebody else comes and touches the same door knob or keyboard or book. Some diseases do spread like that, but COVID-19 almost never does. And that's something we didn't really know at the beginning when I wrote the book. If you remember a year ago, there was a ton of emphasis on handwashing.
Handwashing is still important because you also don't want to get all those other diseases, but that mainly COVID-19 happens because you're sharing air with another person. Not because you're sharing books with them.
Matthew: Now that you know how people get it, let’s talk about what it looks like for someone to have COVID-19.
Malia: So sometimes when people get COVID 19, they don't feel anything. They have no symptoms at all. And their immune systems respond to it really quickly and help to, uh, fight the virus in your body. And you don't ever feel it. Other times when people get COVID 19, they get a little sniffle, they have a headache, they feel fevery for a few days, you know, it's very similar to some other little virus that you might pick up at school.
But sometimes, and this is especially true for people who are older, uh, when they get COVID-19, they get, um, it becomes really hard to breathe. It affects their lungs and they have to go to the hospital in order to get support for, um, breathing. So they get extra oxygen and in really severe cases, they actually have to get a machine to help them breathe. And that, that is called a respirator and that's something that would happen in the hospital. So, you know, there's a huge range of what it's like to have COVID-19.
In most cases it's something like having a little flu or the cold and especially for kids.
Matthew: And while most people with COVID-19 recover, many do not. In the US, over 500 thousand people have died from COVID-19. And around the world? Two and a half million lives lost. Worse, data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that People of Color and Native American communities are experiencing higher rates of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 than white populations.
Malia: If you do get that sick that you need to be in the hospital, we don't have a medicine that specifically treats this disease. All we can do for people is just try to help them keep breathing and that doesn't always work. And so when people die of COVID-19 it's because their lungs have failed. They're not able to breathe anymore because the virus has kind of taken over.
And unfortunately we just don't have a specific medicine that we could give people, you know, like if you get strep throat, um, there's a specific medicine called an antibiotic that will treat that and you'll get better from strep throat right away. We don't have a medicine like that for COVID-19 yet.
Matthew: I know you have feelings about COVID. Have you had a chance to share them with other people? Have you listened to how other people are feeling, too? If you’re listening to this episode with someone else (or a few someones), pause and take a moment to share your thoughts.
Nathan: COVID makes me feel kind of sad and also really mad because I can’t see my friends anymore and I have to go on video calls to see everything. And I have to do everything virtual. And I have to stay at home and wear a mask all the time. It’s kind of hard.
Sydney: I used to think and feel that it was horrible and hard and stuff like that, but now I’m just used to it and used to going to school with a mask on and not used to seeing my friends without masks and I’m just… When someone talks about it, I don’t feel any different than mostly any other conversation
Lydia: It makes me feel mad because I can’t see my friends that much anymore.
Malia: It's such a tough question to answer because I have a lot of different feelings about it. And those feelings change all the time. There are some days when I feel really angry about it. Um, there are some days when I feel hopeless and powerless to stop it, uh, I've spent most of the last year doing what I can to inform people and promote science.
I'm really grateful that I live in a place where I can, uh, be fairly confident that if I got sick, I would get good medicine and, and get better quickly as quickly as possible. I also feel like, um, I'm just tired. It makes me feel tired. You know, it's been a whole year and I know everybody's just really tired of this and ready to get back to normal.
And I feel that too.
Matthew: We’ll be back in a minute with Malia - and the answers to questions you submitted - right after this quick break.
[BREAK]
Matthew: Welcome back to A Kids Book About: The Podcast. On today’s episode we’re talking about COVID-19 with Malia Jones, a social epidemiologist.
We’re about to get to your questions, but first I had one of my own: How does a scientist come to find themselves involved with a children’s book company?
Malia: I wrote this email to my, my friends and family about what I saw happening. It was right at the beginning of the pandemic. I study infectious diseases and vaccines for infectious diseases. And so I was doing my research. I could see that we had a really big problem coming. And so I wrote this email to my friends and family and the email, somebody posted it on Facebook and then it got viewed by over a million people. And one of those people was Jelani Memory who was. Is the A Kids Book About founder. And he reached out to me and said, Hey, would you like to write a book about COVID-19 for children?
And of course I have two children. And I said, yes, absolutely. I would love to do that.
Matthew: Woah! Her email was shared over a million times! To me, that really emphasizes how important it is to make sure the information we share with others about COVID-19 and staying safe is accurate and up-to-date. It sounds like Malia’s email really helped a lot of people.
[LISTENER QUESTION]
We received so many questions for Malia that today we’re hearing from three listeners. Our first question comes from Sydney in Illinois.
Sydney: How long will it take for everyone to get the vaccine?
Malia: Yeah, Sydney, this is, uh, a very astute question and the truth is scientists just do not know how long it will take for everyone to get the vaccine. Right now, the problem is that we don't have enough vaccines to give everyone, um, and we're starting with the oldest age groups because, like I said before, those are the people who are the most likely to get really sick from COVID-19.
Um, we don't even have a vaccine for kids approved yet, and probably we won't have one approved for kids until the first part of next year. Or at least young kids, kids under age 12. And so, you know, for everyone to get the vaccine who wants one, including kids, I would say it's going to take at least a year.
The other problem we have though is that there are a lot of people out there who don't think the vaccines are a good idea. They're worried about the vaccines. Because they're new or because they're not sure what's in them or because they've heard some bad information about them. And so I think we also have a real challenge with people who don't want to get the vaccines, even if one were available to them.
We did have some really good news, just, just over the weekend that there's a new vaccine coming available called the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. And this one is great because it only requires one dose. You don't have to take two shots and you can keep it in a regular temperature refrigerator.
It doesn't need some super special ultra cold refrigerator, which means that it's easier to get out to places that don't have, um, freezers that keep things at negative 80 degrees. So that will really help with worldwide distribution.
Matthew: Next up is Lydia in Ohio.
Lydia: When will it stop?
Malia: Yeah, that's the question that everybody wants to know, Lydia. I'm hopeful that we're going to get things under control and get back to something that looks a little more like normal by sometime this summer into the fall here in the United States and in probably in Europe, too. A lot of that depends on these mutations and the variants that are going around. And a lot of it depends on how fast we can get vaccines to be available and also convince people that the vaccines really are a good idea. So fingers crossed by fall we'll have something that looks more like regular life. I don't think it will be a hundred percent normal. I think we're all going to be wearing masks for a while, especially in school. And at least until we get kids covered with the vaccine too.
Matthew: And here is Demetria in Massachusetts.
Demetria: Do trees get sick from it?
Malia: Plants can not get sick from COVID-19. We've had a few cases where another kind of pet animal has gotten COVID-19. There've been a few dogs and cats. There've been a few tigers in zoos and gorillas in zoos. But mostly it's just people who get COVID-19.
The one type of animal that seems really susceptible to this disease are in the weasel family. So if you have a pet ferret, then you really should be careful around your pet ferret because they can get it. But most animals are very unlikely to get it and no plant could possibly get it, including trees.
[CLOSING]
Matthew: Thank you to Malia Jones, author of A Kids Book About COVID-19, for joining us today. And thanks to our four very special kid voices for helping make this episode what it is.
Sydney: Hi. My name is Sydney. I am 10 years old and I live in Illinois. My favorite things are books and reading.
Demetria: Hi. My name is Demetria and I am 5 years old. I live in Massachusetts.
Nathan: Hi, my name is Nathan, I’m 10 years old, and I live in Maryland. My favorite things to do are traveling and games.
Lydia: My name is Lydia and I am 7 years old and I live in Ohio. My favorite thing to do is rescue animals.
Matthew: Thanks, Sydney! Thank you, Demetria! Thanks, Nathan! And thank you, Lydia! If you want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast or if you have a question you’d like us to consider, have a grownup email us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com and we’ll send you the details.
A Kids Book About: the Podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Matthew Winner, with help from Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts are found, and if you liked this episode, consider sharing it with a friend, teacher, or grownup.
Join us next week for a conversation about Feminism with A Kids Book About author Emma Mcilroy.