US Coronavirus Rates Are Rising Rapidly Among Children

As some schools begin classes in person, data collected by the American Academy of Pediatrics this summer shows that coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in children and adolescents, while comparatively low, have increased at a slower rate. quickly to enter the general public. .

The data set, which spans from May 21 to August 20, varies from state to state, possibly hiding differences in how the virus affects infants, toddlers and teens.

For example, many states group babies and teens into the same category. One state even includes people up to 24 years old. But the increase remains similar in all states.

Young children seem to contract and transmit the virus less than adults, and children of all ages tend not to experience serious complications from it. But Dr. Sean O’Leary, vice chairman of the infectious diseases committee at the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that substantial community spread in many parts of the United States corresponds to more infections among children.

The increase in reported cases comes in part from more widespread testing, but O’Leary said there was evidence that minors were becoming infected at a higher rate now than at the beginning of the year because hospitalizations and deaths among children had also increased.

Although much is still unknown about how the virus affects young people, as well as adults, Black and Latino children who contract the virus are more likely to be hospitalized.

“Anyone who has been at the forefront of this pandemic in a children’s hospital can tell you that we have cared for many children who are very sick,” O’Leary said. “Yes, it is less severe in children than in adults, but it is not completely benign.”

Since the beginning of summer, every state in the country has seen an increase in the number of young people who tested positive for the coronavirus, as a percentage of all cases. At the end of May, about 5 percent of the country’s cases were documented in minors. By August 20, that number had risen to more than 9 percent.

Some lawmakers have cited the lower likelihood of transmission among school-age children as a reason why schools should reopen for face-to-face classes.

President Donald Trump has said that he would like schools to reopen completely and falsely claimed in a video posted by his campaign that children were “virtually immune” to the virus. Facebook and Twitter later removed the video, saying it violated policies on misinformation about the virus. In July, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, claimed that “school children are not really vectors of this.”

Dr. William Raszka Jr., a pediatric infectious disease expert at the Robert Larner School of Medicine, MD at the University of Vermont at Burlington, said the research consistently showed that adults, not children, were driving the spread of the virus. However, outbreaks in summer camps and schools have shown that transmission can indeed occur between children.

At a Georgia summer camp where hundreds of people were infected, 76 percent of the campers and staff whose test results were available to researchers tested positive. Younger campers, ages 6 to 10, were more likely to be infected than older campers.

It is clear that the virus can be spread among children under certain circumstances, Raszka said. She’s concerned about opening schools in places where infection rates are high, especially in areas that don’t require people to wear masks or other proven mitigation measures to stop the spread of the virus.

Unlike summer camp where children interact almost entirely with other children and adolescents, schools that teach face-to-face classes require interactions between students and their teachers and adult caregivers, who may be more vulnerable to serious complications.

“One of the challenges is that you just can’t separate the schools from the community,” Raszka said. “When there is a really high prevalence rate in the community and schools are opened, there will be a lot of transmission in the schools.”

In June, a study published in Nature found that people under the age of 20 were about half as susceptible to contracting the virus as those over 20. That lower chance of infection is reflected in many states. In Arizona, for example, about 2,800 out of 100,000 residents have tested positive, while just over 1,300 out of 100,000 children in the state have tested positive.

That probability changes according to age. Research consistently shows that teens are more likely to contract and transmit the virus than younger children, although the reasons are uncertain. Children ages 10-19 account for a higher proportion of cases than young children in all states tracking age groups separately.

The total number of infected children has doubled since the American Academy of Pediatrics and educational groups recommended in early July that schools reopen whenever possible. Despite the overall increases, experts said those guidelines still apply.

“There are many places in the US where it is potentially safe to reopen schools, even knowing that, yes, children can become infected and, yes, sometimes children can become seriously infected,” O’Leary said.

Some success stories show that transmission among children can be stopped in settings with low community virus levels.

In four summer camps in Maine, a state with one of the lowest infection rates in the country, aggressive testing and quarantine prevented those who tested positive after their arrival from spreading the virus. Germany, Denmark, and Norway have been able to keep schools open, thanks to a combination of low community transmission, rapid and free testing, and rigorous follow-up of contacts.

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