125352083_web1_First-Day-of-school2

School reopening becomes a roller coaster for parents

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross hospitalized, 'minor' issues

As families debate the return of their own children to schools, one question is obvious: How much does COVID-19 infect and affect younger children?
				It is not called a novel coronavirus abstractly. The bug behind COVID-19 is new, and scientific findings regarding it keep changing as more experiments and studies are conducted. So the short answer, based on a review of multiple sources, is that we still don&rsquo;t fully know. The long answer?
				Regarding children and COVID-19:
				&#8226; The World Health Organization (from which President Donald Trump has said the United States will withdraw), says &ldquo;Older people and younger people can be infected by the virus,&rdquo; though it&rsquo;s well documented older people and those with pre-existing conditions regardless of age &ldquo;appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill.&rdquo; Recommendation: People of all ages should take steps to protect themselves&rdquo; (i.e. masks, hygiene, distancing).
				&#8226; Bloomberg reported Thursday that, &ldquo;while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long maintained on its website that those younger than 18 make up only 2% of cases, some states have reported rates nearing 10% for that age group. As of Friday, the state department of health reported 99,478 positive cases of COVID-19, with 1,700 age 9 or younger and 4,400 ages 10 through 19. That means a bit more than 6 percent of positive cases reported were for people under the age of 20.
				&#8226; The Mayo Clinic has reported that, although rare, infants under age 1 are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19, though that doesn&rsquo;t relate to school-age children. Studies also suggest newborns may be infected with the virus during childbirth or by exposure to sick caregivers after delivery. Older children who get the virus have symptoms that &ldquo;tend to be mild and cold-like,&rdquo; recovering within a week.
				&#8226; A related but separate concern has developed in recent weeks: Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). The Mayo Clinic describes it as &ldquo;a serious condition in which some parts of the body &mdash; such as the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, digestive system, brain, skin or eyes &mdash; become inflamed.&rdquo; As of Friday, the state Department of Health has reported 35 confirmed cases and 60 potential cases of MIS-C.
				&#8226; Science News (and other outlets) have reported on a commentary in the journal of Pediatrics (the peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics) which concluded &ldquo;that children infrequently transmit COVID-19 to each other or to adults, and that many schools, provided they follow appropriate social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their community, can and should reopen in the fall.&rdquo;
				&#8226; A limited study of hospitalized pediatric coronavirus in Chicago (from March 5 to April 8, looking at COVID-19 patients aged 0-17 (about 1% of all confirmed cases at the time), found 10 of those patients were hospitalized, and 7 required an average of 4 days in intensive care.Younger patients (3.5 years old, median) were &ldquo;significantly&rdquo; more likely to require hospitalization, meaning school-age children were less likely to have serious symptoms
				&#8226; Even with the relatively low risk to children known so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends limiting time with other children in groups because &ldquo;children can pass this virus onto others who have an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.&rdquo;
				Regarding educators and staff:
				&#8226; One study by the Pediatric Diseases Society showed just 13% of pediatric COVID 19 cases led to transmission from child to adult. That may sound encouraging, but teachers, administrators and other school employees aren&rsquo;t limited to exposure to students. Like any workers, they share spaces while working, in bathrooms or lounges, and elsewhere.
				&#8226; A review by researchers at Brown University, MIT, Harvard and other institutions found that &ldquo;on average, kids do not seem to get very sick from COVID-19. This has become increasingly clear as the pandemic has evolved,&rdquo; bolstering findings above. In fact, one study suggests those under 20 &ldquo;are half as susceptible to infections&rdquo; as those over 20. But the review also notes there is no clear evidence that kids don&rsquo;t carry and spread the virus to adults. &ldquo;Some people have taken the above data to mean kids cannot spread COVID-19. This is not right. They can.&rdquo;

What do we know about children and COVID-19? Maybe not enough