CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta announced Wednesday that his children will not be returning to school in the fall, with the father of three teenage and fourteen girls saying while children are “much less likely to get sick from COVID-19 “they can” get infected and they can spread it fast. “
The decision by Gupta, who lives in Fulton County, Georgia, comes as a growing number of states have announced that they will only begin the fall school year with distance learning, including New Jersey, which has just reversed the course of its decision to starting with in-person learning on Wednesday.
“Many schools around the country have already made the decision for the students. At least 63 of the 101 largest school districts in the country decided to start the year with virtual learning. There are other school districts that have decided to go personal “Although many with virtual options. My own primary school left the choice to the individual families, and although it is difficult, I am grateful that we have options,” Gupta wrote in a CNN.com op-ed.
“It is true that children are much less likely to get COVID-19 compared to adults, but they are by no means immune. They can become infected and they can spread it rapidly. A widely cited study from South Korea showed that children 10 to 19 spread the virus just as much as adults, “Gupta later noted. “In fact, they had the highest rate of COVID-19 among household contacts. Interestingly, in that same study, children younger than 10 did not account for a significant amount of viral spread.”
Gupta noted that the South Korean study had only 30 positive cases of those younger than 10 years.
Of the nearly 60,000 contacts found in that study, only 237 were from children under 10. The low prevalence rate among young children was perhaps not because they were less likely to transmit the virus, but because they were for it. for the most part have been at home over the last few months, and had a few contacts as a result. “
“As our children become more and more mobile, they will become part of a larger national experiment, and there is little doubt that infection rates will increase,” he added in writing that he is “particularly affected by the stories of concerned teachers. ran the country saying they were writing their will in anticipation of going back to school. “
“None of this is easy, and some families may come to a different conclusion after looking at the same data,” Gupta concluded. “At the age of COVID-19, it seems like we’re all forced to become amateur epidemiologists, while also being the best parents we can be.”
Fulton County has seen more than 20,000 cases and 445 deaths since the pandemic began.
The county rate of new cases per 100,000 people current rate is 316.2, which is 216.2 cases above the standard 100 new cases per 100,000 people for face-to-face instruction in Georgia.
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