The back-to-school season is fast approaching, and school reopens remain a controversial debate in the US Amid the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
Dr. Deborah Birx, a doctor and coordinator of the White House coronavirus special force, highlighted on Friday the uncertainty about the speed with which school-age children, that is, those under the age of 10, transmitted the new virus.
“We know that children under the age of 18 are less ill, but there are some who suffer terrible consequences if they have underlying conditions,” Birx said during a morning appearance on NBC’s TODAY show.
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“What I cannot say for sure despite the South Korean study is whether children under the age of 10 in the United States do not transmit the virus in the same way as children over the age of 10,” he continued.
“I think it is still an open question that needs to be studied in the United States. We certainly know from other studies that children under the age of 10 become infected, it is unclear how quickly they spread the virus,” added Birx.
Brix was referring to a recent study from South Korea that found a higher prevalence of COVID-19 transmission from older school-age children than those under the age of nine.
The study authors said the large-scale research is representative of most patients with COVID-19 at the start of the outbreak in South Korea.
“We showed that home transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was high if the index patient (or the first documented case in a group) was between 10 and 19 years old,” they wrote.
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The team monitored nearly 65,000 patients for approximately 10 days after a coronavirus infection was detected, and found that a total of 11.8 percent of the domestic contacts of these “index patients” had a COVID-19 infection. In households with patients ages 10-19, almost 19 percent of household contacts had an infection.
“Our large-scale research showed that the transmission pattern was similar to that of other respiratory viruses,” the authors wrote. “Although the detection rate of contacts for preschool-age children was lower, young children may show higher attack rates when school closes, which contributes to community transmission of COVID-19.”
Birx’s comments came after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released several virtual tools and guidelines on Thursday to help schools and educational staff across the country as classes in person will resume in the fall.
The suggestions, which are listed on the agency’s website, are also designed to help parents ensure that their children are as protected as possible by taking specific precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19.
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“Knowledge is power, and I think that was very important because yesterday the president had the map behind him that showed where the most recent cases are,” Birx said Friday. “Those were the cases in the last seven to 14 days really to report. To the public, there are areas in the United States where cases are increasing rapidly and continue to increase.
“And in those cases and with the new CDC guidelines to really give parents, school administrators, teachers and county supervisors really an understanding of where they are in the epidemic and what precautions they should take,” he added.
Kayla Rivas and Nick Givas of Fox News contributed to this report.
