Can Kids Transmit the Coronavirus?

Please, please can we have camp?

Emily Oster
Elemental

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Photo: Kawee Wateesatogkij / EyeEm/Getty Images

Pulled from my May 4 newsletter, ParentData

Full disclosure, I spend about 73% of my time obsessing about whether there will be summer camp in Rhode Island. I send borderline appropriate emails to people I work with on virus response, nagging them about this.

I’ve expanded my obsession to neighboring states. Maine seems promising! Maybe we can move there for the summer?! I’m perusing Airbnb like it’s my (fifth) job.

The concerns with opening camps relate to the concerns with opening schools: If we get a bunch of kids together, they’ll spread the virus. As a result, I was pretty excited when I saw a bunch of headlines last week implying that kids can’t spread the coronavirus.

But on the flip side, you have other researchers saying, no, in fact, kids do transmit Covid-19 and opening schools is dangerous. So what is it?

Kids and Covid-19 illness

I’ve already covered kids and Covid-19 a lot and noted that they do not seem to get very sick. There is a Chinese study saying this, there is data from the CDC, and there’s more data from the Netherlands and Italy. Basically, we are pretty clear at this point that serious Covid-related illness is just really, really rare in…

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Emily Oster
Elemental

Professor of Economics, Brown University. Author: Expecting Better and CRIBSHEET (April 2019). Goal: creating a world of more relaxed pregnant women and parents