Incidence of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. 30th June 2023, Toronto
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2806712?utm_source=For_The_Media& ;utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=063023

Key Points

Analysis of 42 studies

N = 102,984 youths (19 years and under)

Incidence of type 1 diabetes was higher during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with before the pandemic.

The findings suggest the need to elucidate possible underlying mechanisms to explain temporal changes

Synthesize estimates of changes in incidence rates

Minimum observation period of 12 months during and 12 months before the pandemic

(Also looked at incidence of DKA in new-onset diabetes during the pandemic.)

Results, Type 1 diabetes incidence rates

N = 38,149 youths

First year of the pandemic, incidence rate ratio = 1.14

During months 13 to 24, incidence rate ratio = 1.27

(Expected 3% to 4% annual increase trends in Europe)

Results, Type 2 diabetes incidence rates

Ten studies reported incident in both periods.

Eight studies, an increase incident of type 2 diabetes

Results, DKA incidence rates

Fifteen studies

Incidence rate ratio = 1.26

Conclusions

Future studies are needed to assess whether this trend persists,

and may help elucidate possible underlying mechanisms to explain temporal changes.

More from the study

Some studies reported an association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and new-onset diabetes.

However, (challenges in SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis), concerns about the validity of these studies.

Data sets used in other studies did not capture asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2

There is no clear mechanism by which COVID-19 could directly or indirectly lead to new-onset type 1 or 2 diabetes.

Purported direct mechanisms

SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor ACE2 is expressed on insulin-producing β cells

There is no clear underlying mechanism explaining the association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent increased risk of diabetes.

Population-based studies suggest…. that the increase in incidence may be due to an immune-mediated mechanism.

Proposed indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures that may be associated with diabetes

(contrary to what would be expected based on the decrease in viral infections among children)

‘Catch-up’ could only influence the first year of the pandemic

Reflection on yesterday’s lab leak video and biological war

As someone who has spent a number of years studying biological warfare (BW) and ways to defend against it,

I'm not convinced that the Wuhan virus was not meant to be a BW agent.

High lethality isn't necessarily required to be an effective weapon;

it just needs to be able to incapacitate a significant number of people.

The incapacitated people are no longer able to do their jobs,

and the added benefit to the employer of the weapon is that those incapacitated people now take up more resources and more people to treat them than if they died.

Also, the genetic techniques that they used,

techniques that made it difficult to identify any man-made changes,

is in line with one of the main attractions of BW - plausible deniability.

Thank you for your thorough, objective and thoughtful reports!