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What New Data Reveals About Kids and Coronavirus Spread
New research shows kids can spread Covid-19 to family members, even when they are asymptomatic
All around the world, kids are going back to school. While some children have the option to learn from home, many are returning to physical classrooms. The decision to send kids back to in-person school is fraught: While doing so can be good for their mental health and development and it can provide child care for caregivers who need to work, the spread of Covid-19 among children — and their ability to pass it to other family members — is still not well understood.
As my colleague Dana Smith previously wrote in Elemental, kids don’t seem to be as vulnerable to Covid-19 as adults, and scientists still aren’t sure why. But the idea that children are immune to Covid-19, which gained prominence in the early days of the pandemic, has been refuted by newer data. Kids can spread the virus; it’s just not clear how often they do so.
The official stance of the World Health Organization is that kids (up to 18 years old) tend to have milder illness and fewer symptoms and that their role in transmission still isn’t understood. Cases among kids may go unnoticed because they are often asymptomatic. In a press conference at the end of August, Hans Kluge, MD…
