Kids in China Receive Treatment While Doing Homework During Outbreak

Images surfaced on China's social media websites this week that purportedly showed young students doing their homework while receiving IV drips amid the country's battle with a series of respiratory infections.

In one picture that began circulating on Weibo, China's X-like microblogging service, a row of kids was seen bent over a long desk inside a hospital, working diligently under adult supervision.

It was unclear when or where the widely shared photograph was taken. Newsweek couldn't independently verify claims that it showed Nanjing Children's Hospital.

On Sunday, China's National Health Commission said the high infection numbers that were overwhelming hospitals in northern parts of the country were primarily caused by influenza. Mycoplasma pneumonia, rhinovirus infections, respiratory syncytial virus and adenovirus were also among the five viruses spreading across the region.

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"I don't support it and I don't understand it," one Weibo user said of the hospitalized students, whose condition was apparently not so serious as to compromise their ability to do school work.

"Working hard to make money, I don't want my children to be so busy in the future," another netizen said.

One commenter said they had seen a picture of a boy practicing violin next to his hospital bed while being given an IV drip. Meanwhile, in one image, three students were pictured doing their homework from their bed inside an unidentified hospital ward.

CCTV, China's state broadcaster, reported on the phenomenon on November 23.

"Is it necessary to make children do sums while on IV therapy?" the state news outlet wrote on its official Weibo account, noting that hospitals had designated areas for study, at the request of parents.

"From a parent's perspective, this is understandable. Today's education environment is too complex, especially in big cities, where every child is born with the expectations of the entire family," CCTV said.

It cited the many types of classes Chinese students attend, with schedules "even busier than those of celebrities."

China's education system is one of the most intensely competitive in the world. Many students who expect to gain entrance to university spend long hours taking additional lessons after school to keep up with their peers.

The scenes reportedly playing out in the country's packed hospitals, however, reflect the challenging balance national and local leaders must strike while address a public health emergency that officials in Beijing say—according to the WHO—may be nothing out of the ordinary.

Zhou Wei, deputy chief physician of pediatrics at Peking University Third Hospital in the Chinese capital, said some Chinese parents believe IV therapy to be superior to oral medicine.

This is not the case, Zhou told China's official news agency Xinhua earlier this month, adding that only severe cases require IV treatment.

China's expert have attributed the unusually large outbreak of respiratory illness to an "immunity gap" created by the country's yearslong battle against COVID-19, with the most stringent measures only being dropped late last year.

To prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the disease, adults and children were confined to their homes during the pandemic in lengthy lockdowns that saw the widespread closure of workplaces and schools, leading to a lack of exposure to otherwise seasonal illnesses.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson David Daigle told Newsweek the agency would "continue to monitor the situation, collaborating with global health partners" over the increase in illness, and was "in touch with local health authorities and its country office in China."