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Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,036
Registered: ‎07-25-2010

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

"Children" wasn't the correct term to use.  Looks like they studied children and young adults through college ages.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,324
Registered: ‎04-28-2010

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

It kind of makes sense............Young children walk low to the ground, where there possibly are lots of germs lurking on folks' shoe soles.  

 

I mentioned somewhere before that we knew of one grandma who used to take her 5 yr old grand child to the supermarket, in the beginning of this virus, thinking that children were 'immune'.  

 

Don't know if she is still taking the child.  Hopefully not.

 

 

'More or less', 'Right or wrong', 'In general', and 'Just thinking out loud ' (as usual).
Honored Contributor
Posts: 18,324
Registered: ‎04-28-2010

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

p.s.  Also, the little youngsters are dependant on adults to keep their hands and clothing extra clean (during this pandemic virus).

 

The youngsters are too young and short to actually do it for themselves, etc.   Can't reach the sink faucet, etc.

 

Can't blame them.

'More or less', 'Right or wrong', 'In general', and 'Just thinking out loud ' (as usual).
Honored Contributor
Posts: 21,733
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

It might not sound surprising IF we had not been told repeatedly that young children don't spread the virus.


~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Super Contributor
Posts: 456
Registered: ‎10-22-2019

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

There was similar info in a Miami Herald article regarding a study by Dr. Taylor Heald-Sargent, pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago that included this info:

 

"The general consensus on children and the novel coronavirus is that they neither play as large a role in spreading it as adults, nor do they contract the disease as often.

 

But new research says children younger than 5 years old can hoard up to 100 times more of the virus in their noses than older children and adults, suggesting kids could be a significant driver of viral spread."

 

 

Those darn crumb crushers stick everything up their noses LOL.

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,736
Registered: ‎02-19-2014

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

[ Edited ]

Obviously they included college age "kids." That explains the age range.

 

In TN, with some schools in session for 2 weeks now, we have over 2,000 kids (aged 5-18) infected that we know of. Most schools have the option to put kids in classroom or virtual. School officials are very concerned and are already struggling with the realities of starting and stopping in person classes repeatedly.

 

Anecdote from my life

This was just a few weeks ago. My brother in law's whole family caught Covid from their 14 year old. The adults, in their 40s, had significant symptoms that were debilitating and made it hard to parent, but didn't require hospitalization. They are still coping with lingering aftereffects. The youngest had no symptoms. The 14 year old had moderate to mild symptoms.

 

All were infected and contagious and would not have gotten tested as early as they did if the 14 year old hadn't shown symptoms. (I have not even discussed with them the potential health issues the teen may face down the road because of it. But I am sure they are well aware.) They thought they were taking adequate precautions but the teen was playing sports and they think that's how it happened.

 

Once one household member gets Covid, everyone does. Unless extreme measures are taken.

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,788
Registered: ‎06-10-2010

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

 @suzyQ3   Yes to this!  I told DH just the other day, I didn't believe kids weren't spreaders. There is just so much we don't know so that's why we need to be careful and not laugh at people who don't think alike.  It's almost a "toss up" really.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,736
Registered: ‎02-19-2014

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

Parents who send their children to school need to have a plan regarding how they intend to parent and take good care of their child if the child gets infected.

 

Will any attempts be made to avoid infecting the rest of the family? Which adults will step in and potentially become infected as well if the parents are temporarily or permanently unable to care for the children due to suffering from Covid themselves?

When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
"Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,078
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

Any one that has had kids ,know they are germ spreaders, yet another reason to get vaccines.

When you lose some one you L~O~V~E, that Memory of them, becomes a TREASURE.
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,970
Registered: ‎03-16-2010

Re: Children are Silent Spreaders of Covid Virus

[ Edited ]

@kitcat51 wrote:

22 is a child? Ridiculous.


________________________________________________________

 

@kitcat51,  It is clearly identified that the authors of the study had 2 different specific purposes for including individuals up to the age of 22 years in this study.

 

1.  One of the reasons to conduct the study was to study the phenomenon in addition to hopefully provide some initial information for those making decisions about schools.  Although not 100%, the vast majority of undergraduate college age students are in this age range so it would hopefully supply information to university and college administrators as they go about making decisions for their classes in regard to possible transmission as universities are planning to resume the academic school year.  

 

2.  A particular hypothesis they were also testing was the theory that children tend to have milder cases or be asymptomatic with covid-19 that  is related to a lower ACE2 activity.  Another theory is that ACE2 activity increases with age.  Neither of these areas had been examined before.  

 

They measured ACE2 expression in all subjects in the study and therefore could also examine the difference in the ACE2 expression between younger individuals versus those that are 21 or 22 to see if ACE2 expression did increase in age within this specific age group.

 

That information would be very helpful not only for learning about individuals that are in age ranges that attend school or college, but could also lend support to the theory that one of the reasons adults are so signficantly impacted by covid-19 relates to increased ACE2 expression that occurs with older adults.

 

And the findings were signficiant in regard to ACE2 expression.  A direct quote from the research article:

 

"SARS-CoV-2 viral binding sites
ACE2 gene expression was quantified from nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs of SARS-CoV-2(+) and SARS-CoV-2 (-) children, plus from swabs from asymptomatic children presenting for well-visits and from newborns who were also enrolled in the MGH Pediatric COVID-19 biorepository. ACE2 expression was higher in SARS-CoV-2 infected children (including MIS-C) as compared with non-infected children (P=0.004) (Figure 3, A). Within the SARS-CoV-2 infected cohort, ACE2 expression did not correlate with viral load, suggesting that although increased ACE2 expression increased susceptibility for infection, once infected, children could carry high viral loads regardless of level of ACE2 expression (Figure 3, B). Children <10 years had lower ACE2 expression as compared with older children (P=0.004) (Figure 3, C). Within the pediatric cohort, ACE2 expression increased with age (Spearman r=0.20, P=0.02) (Figure 3, D)."

 

A p value of 0.004 is statistically signficant which supports the theory that ACE2 activity does increase with age, even within this younger population group.

 

So in the end, a very positive attribute in the study is that they did include individuals up to 22 years of age to examine ACE2 expression in addition to providing information useful for colleges and universities.

 

 


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