Covid-19 Spread Fastest by Teens and Tweens, Korea Study Finds

[bluewater]

Source: MSN/Bloomberg

Older children are more likely to spread Covid-19 within a household than younger children and adults, according to a new study of 5,706 coronavirus patients in South Korea.

The researchers traced and tested nearly 60,000 people who had contact with the infected people and found that, on average, 11.8% of household contacts tested positive for Covid-19, according to the early release of a study published on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

For people who lived with patients between the ages of 10 and 19, 18.6% tested positive for the virus within about 10 days after the initial case was detected -- the highest rate of transmission among the groups studied. Children younger than 10 spread the virus at the lowest rate, though researchers warned that could change when schools reopen.

The study comes on the heels of an intensifying debate about whether, when and how schools should resume classes. Working parents around the world have been struggling to balance their own remote work with the added complication of school closures. There is intense pressure on political leaders. In the U.S., the Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funds for local school districts that fail to reopen.

At the same time, virus rates have been rising again, even in places that thought they’d extinguished their outbreaks, and many teachers are wary of returning to the classroom. State data suggests the infection rates among children could also be far higher than the 2% reported by the CDC.

The South Korean study suggests that older children may be particularly contagious, although the researchers point out that household contacts could have contracted the virus elsewhere. Still, given the high rates of infection within families, the study called for more research to understand how to limit the spread of the virus at home.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/covid-19-spread-fastest-by-teens-and-tweens-korea-study-finds/ar-BB16V7xm

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So much for Gov. DeSantis (R) of Florida's claim that children don't get or spread the virus to any significant degree.

But, yeah, let's rush to open unprepared schools where we can't even provide each child with a mask.

[regnaD kciN]

1. No surprise...

...as, around here, it's the middle-schoolers to high-schoolers you almost never see wearing a mask outdoors...or, sometimes, even indoors in public places (where it's supposed to be mandatory).

[LiberalArkie]

4. They are told that they won't get sick.

[paleotn]

11. College age kids up here mostly.....

However, going into the grocery stores I've seen some mighty pouty teens being told by their moms to put on their masks. Oh, mom! Do I have to? Yes..you have to.

I've wondered lately how dumb someone has to be to think kids don't transmit SARS-Cov-2 at the same rates as everyone else. They certainly transmit every other damn pathogen at the same rate. Rethuglicans will parrot anything, no matter how stupid.

[EllieBC]

2. I like how everyone seems to have forgotten what it's like to be young.

Yes I know *we* were all angels who never ever made bad choices or did things we shouldn't. Where did I leave my halo again?

Anyway, short of welding them indoors or jailing them you aren't going to stop the under 25 crew from playing (in the case of children) or partying and hooking up (in the case of teens and early 20 somethings).

Also think of how kids understand time. 4 months might as well be a year. And then you have people mumbling about how there may never be a vaccine. If you are a young person that sounds a lot like, "Your life is going to be boring garbage until you die".

[NJCher]

5. "Your life is going to be boring garbage until you die".

No, the parents' lives are going to be garbage until they (possibly) die.

[EllieBC]

6. I am saying what they hear.

You half see it here. The Debbie Downer posts of "this is just how we will have to live there will never be a vaccine!". To a teen that sounds like hell.

I am sorry but there's this huge disconnect where children and young people are being expected to be the polar opposite of what they are. While adults still go to bars and Home Depot.

[paleotn]

8. Exactly...

I figured the higher transmission rates for older children were driven by the fact that they're harder to quarantine than younger kids, for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

[NJCher]

3. I see that here

I have a job that takes me around to the public schools. I am there at various times of the day. What I see is young people--high school students--gathering at the schools, even though they are closed. They play basketball on the courts, sans masks. They ride bicycles around the parking lots--again, no masks.

Last night around 8:30 I looked into an alcove on my way out of the property. It was getting dark. There were about 20 of them hanging out in this alcove, sitting on the steps or leaning against the wall. Not a one had a mask.

I can see them picking up the virus, taking it home, all the while telling their parents that while they're out, they are wearing masks.

No, parents, they're not.

I have a dear friend and neighbor who has a teenager. My friend and I love to get together during the summer weather and sit outside on our lawn chairs, enjoying the evening air and looking at all the hard work we've put into our landscapes and gardens. But because she has this 19-year old, I haven't gotten together with her since the pandemic started. Based on what I see, I just don't trust young people.

[paleotn]

7. DeSantis was....

talking out of his ass. But, then again, he always talks out of his ass. So, situation normal, all fucked up.

[OnlinePoker]

9. Schools have always been petrie dishes. n/t

[CountAllVotes]

10. +1

n/t

& recommend !!

[progressive nobody]

12. But we need to open the school...

[I_UndergroundPanther]

13. I suspect

They want to open schools to force people to work.

Never mind so many jobs are gone.

They want more money

Republicans like poverty death and suffering as long it isn't themselves facing it.

[IronLionZion]

14. YOLO!

We're all going to die of something some day so might as well have fun and party

[SunSeeker]

15. I trust South Korea's findings, they know what they're talking about. nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. We need to reopen the schools - Donald Trump

So kids can become orphans.