Would you trust being around children that have Covid19 not to infect you?

I think if go look at where the statement came from, it was at the beginning of Pandemic and . . . only 2% of the kids had COVID-19 . Therefore you’re less likely to get it because only 2% had the virus. So “It’s said that children can’t spread the virus to adults ” , it is not can’t but were less likely to the have COVID-19 to start with. Not true anymore.

No. What’s said we cannot trust.

I wouldn’t trust that.

Of course kids with COVID can infect others. My own kids sneeze right into my mouth. If they got COVID, I’d certainly get it as well.

As @Tropical_Willie said, I think you’re conflating older information. I don’t believe it was ever said that children cannot spread the disease.

Nope.

I was just walking down a sidewalk today and some unmasked toddler was trundling toward me — weaving to and fro. I couldn’t move to one side because she kept snaking around.

I finally stepped out into the street to avoid her and said “keep away you flipping germ factory.”

@Cupcake Another reason not to have kids!

No one is saying children can’t spread the virus. They are saying most children under ten seem to shed less virus than people over age ten, and so less likely to spread the virus.

Would I trust a child can’t give me covid? No. No one should. Everyone should be taking precautions assuming everyone has it and can spread it.

No reputable source is saying that. Everyone can catch it from anyone.

The CDC reported that over 300 children died of covid-19 in July. That number is expected to surge if children go back to school, plus their family members.

@YARNLADY Is that in America or worldwide? CDC is usually just America, but that sounds very high to me. I have only been looking at Florida numbers.

“More and more studies show that kids are actually stoppers of the disease and they don’t get it and transmit it themselves, so we should be in a posture of — the default should be getting back to school kids in person, in the classroom.”

— Education Secretary Betsy DeVos – July 22, 2020

We are fucked…

@JLeslie I have searched for the report I got that number from, and can’t find it.
Ah, I found it Indonesia, not CDC.

That’s bullshit.

There are more BS rumors surrounding this virus than surrounded HIV when it hit in the 80s.

Indonesia. I’m glad we straightened that out.

It would be good to know the US number. I think Florida still has 2 pediatric deaths and 6 deaths under age 25, maybe it’s higher now. I checked it a couple of weeks ago.

People seem to be hysterical about any pediatric deaths, and I too find it extremely sad and upsetting, I can’t fathom what that is like for the family or what that poor child went through, but every year we lose children to flu illness and most of America is clueless, because it doesn’t make headlines. I think when considering children it’s worthwhile to compare to flu to put things in perspective.

I looked up 2018–2019 flu season for a friend who was hysterical about a covid 19 death of an 11 year old in Florida, here is what I found, these are total country US numbers: 136 children died from flu with a confirmed flu test. That’s all flus. But, they say it might be as high as 480.

That’s with kids in school of course and some immunity in the population, but no distancing, except for some school closures in select cities if they had any that flu season.

Hospitalizations should be looked at also, I don’t have that number handy, because suffering matters, not just deaths, and it’s not clear long term effects.

@JLeslie 5 pediatric deaths as of two days ago in FL. 0.1% of all FL deaths are aged 0–19.

This is a good resource for FL. It is by an epidemiologist researcher colleague of mine. There is a table with age distributions of cases, ED visits, hospitalizations and deaths. Again, this is FL data only.

Let’s not forget that there will be long-term health consequences in children who were even asymptomatic. We don’t know what that will look like yet, but there are bed-ridden and lung damaged children who were previously healthy.

@Cupcake Thanks for that link. Yes, I worry about any long term affects also, and any suffering even if they completely recover. On the face of it, it does seem to me the pediatric death rate is higher than flu, so that is concerning of course. Also, if they bring covid home that obviously is a huge concern.

@JLeslie It’s hard to say (about the death rate and comparisions to the flu) because we don’t have a good denominator of total number of COVID positive children. It’s certain to be vastly underestimated. But, again, I am only minimally interested in the death rate.

@Cupcake I’ve been wondering if there is any information of a symptomatic flu. We only test flu if someone is sick. Moreover, people wind up in the flu count even when not tested. There have been arguments over flu data for years. It’s stated as an estimate, so the government willingly publishes there is some voodoo in the numbers.

I feel like maybe none of the rates matter for covid to at least some degree. What matters is we see hospitals filling up and that’s enough to want to inhibit the spread. Medical personnel know if the hospital is more overwhelmed than a usual flu season, or more deaths.

I was reading the flu overview from 2017–2018, because that was dragged out a lot when covid first hit. I feel our government missed sounding alarms that flu season. I think we should have asked people to stop shaking hands, get the churches on board, and remind people that touching your face is how you get sick. Not getting people hysterical, but aware it was a bad flu season. Maybe it would have cut the illness and death by 20–30%.

Masks in places like airports wouldn’t be a bad thing also. When I flew to Japan we were offered masks on the flight to help keep your nose and throat moist, it does work, and if it would help some flu transmission that’s a nice perk. Anyway, possibly, that was the first outbreak miss for the Trump administration. It’s hard to call, because the media can blow things up into catastrophes. It’s like deciding to evacuate for a storm. You try to stress to stay in county, but people drive 3 counties inland or north and the traffic can be dangerous.