Kids Don’t Spread Covid Like Plague, Models Show – Court News Service

Not only are children less susceptible to Covid-19, they may also play a small role in the Covid-19 epidemic.

(CN) — With the curiosity of the child, when exploring the world through taste and touch, it seems to be essentially ignoring hygiene. Nonetheless, new studies suggest that children are not the main cause of the spread of SARS-Cov-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.Papers published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology Household modeling in Israel on Thursday shows that children are much less likely to be infected with Covid-19 than adults.

Researchers at the University of Israel analyzed the Covid-19 test results from 3,353 people in 637 households in Bnei Brak from March to May 2020 while the city was blocked. Bnei Brak, an Israeli city with a population of 213,046, has an average household size of 5.3, with approximately 51% of its inhabitants under the age of 20.

At that time, district doctors approved tests for all members of the household, one of whom had symptoms of Covid-19. Both PCR, or transcriptional enzyme-polymerase chain reaction tests, and serological blood tests were performed.

Of the data collected, 65% of adults were Covid-19 positive and 28% of children under the age of 20.

Overall, this model suggests that children under the age of 20 are only 43% less susceptible to illness than adults, and 63% are more likely to infect others.

“The key question is whether the above differences between children and adults in the proportion of identified cases are the result of a child’s reduced susceptibility to infection, or are the symptoms exhibited by the infected child mild? Maybe it’s because it’s not at all. A typical test policy leads to underdetection, “the paper said.

Scientists are trying to understand why children are so resistant to the virus that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2. Some suggest that children have low levels of ACE2 receptors that the virus uses to infect cells. Others wonder if they are protected from Covid-19 by the same T cells that help children fight the virus that causes the common cold.

by Johns Hopkins University, Covid-19 killed 2.3 million people worldwide and infected at least 107 million people. To date, the United States has confirmed 27.3 million cases of Covid-19 and 471,000 deaths.

American Academy of Pediatrics Report In the United States, 2.93 million children are Covid-19 positive, accounting for about 12.9% of all cases nationwide. Of these, less than 2.3% were hospitalized and less than 1% died.

Children under the age of 1 are at increased risk of illness, but Johns Hopkins guide Children between the ages of 1 and 10 repeatedly have a low risk of illness and infection. Children between the ages of 10 and 18 are at higher risk than the younger age group, but at lower risk than the older age group.

“Many people also find it difficult to get Covid-19 out of sight,” said Jonas Ludvigsson, a professor of clinical epidemiology. Karolinska Institute In Stockholm. Last year, Ludvigsson treated and studied Covid-19 in children, including a few suffering. Long-term symptoms..

Nonetheless, Ludvigsson pointed out that Swedish children were infected with cancer three times as often as last year’s Covid-19, with more children dying in road accidents than pandemics.

“I see Covid-19 children in the hospital almost every week,” Ludvigsson said in an email. “I feel sad for all children infected with severe Covid-19, but I think it’s important to remember that blockades and school closures also affect children.”

Closing schools has become a widely used strategy throughout the pandemic to slow the spread of Covid-19. Some communities in the United States and around the world have chosen to reopen due to depressed incidents and rising public pressure, while others remain closed.

the study Release Tuesday’s journal Chaos concluded that the blockade reduced overall infection rates by 72% and mortality by 76%, but school closures contributed little.

By modeling New York City’s social interaction and infection rates University of Hong Kong School closures could have reduced the spread of the disease by 4%, but implementing social distance guidelines reduced infections by 47% and halved mortality.

“Schools are only a small part of social contact,” said Qingpeng Zhang, one of the authors of the statement. “People are more likely to be exposed to the virus in public facilities such as restaurants and shopping malls. The focus here is on severe infections and deaths, so older people in public facilities and elsewhere If unprotected, closing the school will make little contribution. “

The data looks hopeful, but researchers immediately take care not to move too fast.

“It’s important that our presumption that children are less sensitive than adults is not misunderstood as meaning that efforts to protect children are not important,” said Yair Goldberg. Technion-Israel The co-author of the study on domestic outbreaks in Israel said in an email.

“As we wrote, the fact that the interactions between children are more intense, especially in the context of schools, is higher among children as society resumes, especially since they are not now. Vaccinated, which may offset the effects of lower susceptibility leading to infection rates, “Goldberg warned.