Karl Stefanovic has opened up to viewers of the Today show, revealing that his two-year-old daughter Harper has been battling a range of health issues for over a year.
Watch Below: Montage of Harper Stefanovic for her birthday
Speaking with Dr Nick Coatsworth on Wednesday, Karl revealed the symptoms his daughter has been struggling with for twelve months and Dr Coatsworth suggested a surprising culprit which may be to blame.
“My daughter, Harper, she’s been getting a lot of sicknesses. It’s been a terrible year,” Karl explained on the show alongside Allison Langdon.
“She got crook last week with influenza. She has an asthma kind of thing now. But it’s not asthma. It is helping. So a lot of kids are going through that at the moment, aren’t they?”
Dr Coatsworth pointed the finger at one potential underlying cause: the effects of lockdown.
Explaining how long periods of isolation can be a major contributing factor in respiratory illnesses in both children and adults, Dr Coatsworth shared how immune systems adapt.
“A lot of kids, adolescents, adults… we’ve had this awful season of respiratory viruses. Almost certainly attributed to lack of human movement during lockdown, which of course we needed to do. But this is the price we pay,” the doctor explained.
“Our immune system has evolved over millions of years. It’s there to help us, it’s there to protect us.”
The good news? Dr Coatsworth could “almost guarantee” the 2023 flu season would be better as “our immune memory is stimulated by all of these viruses.”
“When we’re exposed to viruses, it certainly makes us stronger for the future.”
Harper Stefanovic was rushed to hospital in June due to a respiratory syncytial virus – which is common in children in the winter months.
“Two days ago, my daughter Harper had what’s she had so many times this year, a sniffle and a small cough,” Karl shared on the Today show at the time.
“Within a few hours we gave her Nurofen and Panadol like advised and put her down for a sleep.”
“When she woke up she was breathing really quickly, wheezing, and her heart rate and temperature were through the roof.”
