Father in China Built 'Baby Pod' to Protect Child from Coronavirus

China has been on lockdown since February 2020, and with the current death toll of coronavirus patients, a father of a two-month-old baby in Shanghai, China built a custom-made baby pod that is complete with an air purification system to help keep his child safe from the virus outbreak.

Cao Junjie is a 30-year-old local, he refashioned a cat carrier to make a pod that can be sealed and one that has an air-quality monitor to show the concentration of carbon dioxide inside the pod.

Baby pod

Cao told Reuters that because of the pandemic, he spend a month making a safety pod for his baby. The pod can provide both comfort and safety for his baby despite the dangerous environment of the outside world. His wife, Fang Lulu, said that she was not sure how comfortable their baby would be inside the pod and was skeptical, but after seeing the finished product she knew that their baby would be said. They have tried it several times and all was working properly.

How the baby pod was made

The baby pod has two parts, the cabin, and the filtered breathing machine. A glove is connected to the clean cabin, which allows them to comfort and to feed their baby without actually touching the infant.

The breathing machine delivers filtered air to the baby pod. A monitor is displayed outside to pod to show the air quality inside. Cao stated that the carbon dioxide index is the most important figure in the monitor, it shows if there is a lack of oxygen inside the pod. Since the respiratory system of infants is weak, it could lead to a lack of oxygen if they weak masks.

With the help of a special suit, Cao could take a walk outside with his family despite the virus outbreak. He said he was inspired by the popular game "Death Stranding".

Effects of coronavirus on children

According to the World Health Organization, parents need to prepare their children to guard against the coronavirus after a study showed that infants and toddlers can sometimes develop severe symptoms because of the virus.

The study showed that dozens of children in China have developed severe or critical disease and one child has died, according to Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit. She said that what needs to be done is to prepare for the possibility that children can also experience a severe or critical disease.

The study was published online in the journal Pediatrics. The study looked at 2,143 cases of children with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 symptoms and they were reported to the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between January 16 and February 8, 2020. More than 90% of the children had asymptomatic, mild or moderate cases. But almost 6% of the children's cases were severe or critical, compared to the 18.5% cases of adults.

Bonnie Maldonado, an infectious disease expert at Stanford, said that the result could be due to a lot of reasons. It is possible that the receptor for the virus may not be in the same configuration in children as adults, and it is possible that there were just more adults who were tested because that has been the focus.

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