Tears would well up in the 5-year-old kindergartner’s eyes whenever he saw other children snacking—a luxury to the boy ever since he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in late January. The diagnosis came 1 1/2 months after he got his second dose of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine.
Puncture marks are filling up every finger of both of the boy’s hands due to the constant finger pricking needed to monitor his blood sugar level, according to his father. He gets four doses of insulin every day, and every meal is weighed and measured for carbs.
The boy belongs to a group of between 600 and 1,000 Chinese children diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes between last October and May, according to an open letter signed by parents in this cohort. Beijing ushered a nationwide campaign in late October to inoculate children aged 3 to 11—the age group covering most of the diabetic patients.