COVID-19 AND KIDS

The CDPH’s Safe Schools for All site states “In epidemiological studies globally and nationally, the evidence suggests that children seem to get COVID-19 less frequently than adults. Originally it was thought that they might be less frequently diagnosed due to less testing because children are more often asymptomatic or have less severe symptoms. However, population-wide studies in Iceland and Spain using antibody tests that assess prior infection at any time find that children have lower rates of infection compared to adults.”

The CDPH states on its Safe Schools Reopening site that in studies of open schools in America and around the world, children do not seem to be major sources of transmission — either to each other or to adults. In fact, the greatest risk in school settings comes from adults transmitting it to other adults, often in settings like break rooms where we sometimes let down our guard. One study in Australia of 10 early childhood centers and 15 schools (>6000 people) found low rates in the schools overall (1.2%), and an adult-to-adult transmission rate almost 15 times higher than child-to-child transmission.

There are two general explanations for why children get COVID-19 less frequently and have less severe disease compared to adults. The first is that they produce fewer ACE-2 receptors. Essentially, ACE-2 receptors are the doorway into human cells for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. A study from May 2020 showed that elementary students produce fewer ACE-2 receptors than middle and high school-aged students, who produce fewer receptors than receptors adults.