Kids and COVID

Dr Linda Calabresi

writer

Dr Linda Calabresi

GP; Medical Editor, Healthed

Dr Linda Calabresi

With all the debate about whether or not schools should be closed the question has to be asked – how risky is this coronavirus pandemic to children?

Are they at risk like adults? Do they get very sick with it? What about if they are asthmatic? Or diabetic? How likely is it that they could be asymptomatic carriers?

Well – at this stage – the general consensus is that children appear at much less risk of getting sick with COVID19.

Granted we don’t have a lot of data in yet – what we do have indicates that not only do they appear more likely to have mild cold-like symptoms, it also seems they are less likely to catch it in the first place.

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References

  1. Lu X, Zhang L, Du H, Zhang J, Li YY, Qu J, et al. SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children. N Engl J Med. 2020 Mar 18. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2005073. [Epub ahead of print]
  2. Li R, Pei S, Chen B, Song Y, Zhang T, Yang W, et al. Substantial undocumented infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2). Science. 2020 Mar 16. pii: eabb3221. DOI:  10.1126/science.abb3221. [Epub ahead of print]
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