Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that children are very unlikely to die from COVID-19.
The agency’s data shows that about 8.3 million children have contracted Covid, and 841 children have died since the pandemic began in March 2020.
This means that children account for about 12% of cases and less than 0.1% of deaths in the United States. The census estimates that 22% of Americans are under the age of 18.
Children under the age of 5 are especially hard hit, with 259 deaths reported in the population, which is 6% of Americans.
It has long been known that children do not suffer from Covid as badly as adults. Previous studies have found that about half of cases in children are asymptomatic.
Data from the CDC shows that children account for less than 0.1% of COVID-19 deaths in the US since the pandemic first began in March 2020. Photo: A young woman in Boston, Massachusetts, tested for Covid on January 13
CDC reports weekly age-related mortality data for the previous week. Last week’s data included a total of 834,949 deaths since the pandemic began nearly two years ago.
The data highlights the slight risk that the youngest children face from Covid.
A study published by researchers from the University of Utah in October found that 50% of children with Covid had an asymptomatic case.
The research was also done during the Delta variant wave, before Omicron took the world by storm and became America’s dominant bacterial strain.
A study published in October found that half of children with COVID-19 did not experience symptoms of the virus, compared with only 12% of adults. Research done before the milder Omicron variant became the dominant American strain
Omicron is much milder than Delta and other earlier strains of the virus, so the risk children face is only reduced.
A CDC study published last week found that people of all ages are half as likely to be hospitalized with an Omicron infection and 91% less likely to die.
The small risks children face have raised some concerns about vaccinations, as the small risk a child faces of developing myocarditis may not be worth the shot.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan says she does not see the need for healthy children to receive Covid-boosting drugs.
‘The aim is to protect the most vulnerable, to protect those most at risk of severe illness and death, which are our elderly, immunocompromised people with underlying conditions and also a healthcare worker,’ she said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Swaminathan leads the WHO Strategic Advisory Group on Immunization. The agency has long criticized the rollout of Covid boosters, believing that the risk of infection for a fully vaccinated person is low enough – and that the country should instead donate the dose abroad.
Many American parents also share about whether they plan to immunize their children.
Children ages 5 to 11 are by far the least immunized group in the US, with only 28% getting their first dose of the vaccine and 19% fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
By comparison, nearly every American over the age of 65 has received at least one shot, and at least 74 percent of all adults have had one.
Source: | This article originally belonged to dailymail.co.uk
