116: Will Kids Get Infected?
As the Lewis family is anticipating the upcoming school year we’re thinking about how vulnerable my kids are and whether they should even go. This quote caught my eye:
“When kids get sick, they often have only light symptoms. They are apparently not big spreaders and are often infected by adults. So reopening schools does not seem to be a major problem.”
- Yann Hulmann, a spokesperson for the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health
Researchers seem to agree that children are not contracting the new coronavirus at the same rate as adults. According to CDC, children under 18 account for under 2% of all reported cases., almost nothing.
Some early reports are interesting:
Kids don’t get COVID, and don’t transmit. A recent medical study showed that young children under 10 rarely get or transmit the new coronavirus.
They aren’t the ones bringing it into the home. One study by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia that observed a collection of families with Covid-19 found that children were the initial source of infection among the families in about 8% of households.
They don’t catch COVID very well. Another study by New South Wales' looked at staff and students at 5 primary schools and 10 high schools found that, out of 863 children who were in close contact with someone with Covid-19, only two, or 0.23%, contracted the new coronavirus. They concluded that transmission of the coronavirus "in children in schools appears considerably less than seen for other respiratory viruses, such as influenza."
They don’t give it to others. Another study that examined a cluster of Covid-19 cases in the French Alps found that a nine-year-old who attended three different schools while showing symptoms of Covid-19 didn't infect anyone. "It would be almost unheard of for an adult to be exposed to that many people and not infect anyone else," said a pediatric infectious-diseases researcher at Univ. Southampton.
“Only one documented [Covid-19] outbreak associated with a school. You would normally expect most of the outbreaks to be associated with schools but yet in global literature there is only one documented study. … It is pretty remarkable.”
- John Edmunds, a member of Britain's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies
Yes, BUT
According to all sources, none of these studies are enough to be definitive, so the decision to open schools or not based on any of this would be foolish. Plus, even if the kids don’t get it, what about the teachers?
The bottom line is still that even though rates are lower kids still do catch it sometimes and they still do transmit it sometimes, so it’s not 100% safe. We’ll see how this plays out.
Other Stuff
From my friend Liebtag
Amazing nature photos. Here are the 18 finalists for photos of the year.
As Patton Oswalt said, “jeez would everyone calm down it’s just a massive flock of crows descending from a grey, eldritch, doom-tinged sky during a global pandemic“
Some good insight into failed SNL sketches
I love this video: Even ghosts are scared…
Finally, this is the leading contender for the 2020 motto
Corona
USA
We’re on lockdown here in California so it’s tough to imagine life like anything else. However, some states are moving around a lot, even more than when pandemic started:
Cases:
The overall deaths are down because we’re getting better at treating people. The death rate per hospitalized patient has fallen by almost 50% since April’s peak. But there are so many cases now that deaths are rising or flat in our hotspots:
Florida continues to be getting hit hard
As is Arizona. They reported a record 117 deaths yesterday.
A newcomer to the hotlist is Tennessee which reported more than 2,100 new cases and 21 deaths yesterday, records in both categories. The state is all about having lots of tests so this new outbreak has shown that lots of testing doesn’t mean low cases or deaths.
In Marin, cases are still climbing as we’re one of the worst counties in the country
An interesting look at the cases and death demographics for our county:
That’s all everyone. Have a great Thursday.