Older Children Spread the Coronavirus Just as Much as Adults, Large Study Finds

RE: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/health/coronavirus-children-schools.html

Fox News reported the above news report as twisting the facts and an outright lie. But this article was written to address the debate of whether children spread the virus or not. The study clearly shows that children do spread the virus though they are the lowest risk to COVID-19. This is contrary to the flu and other respiratory illnesses where young children are as vulnerable as oldest adults.

There is nothing magical about children other than their immune systems aren't nearly as developed as adults. One explanation I found that seems plausible is the reason why anyone dies from the virus, which is they don't actually die from the virus itself. They die from complications brought on by their overzealous immune system.

Since children's immune systems are underdeveloped, perhaps their immune response is simply not dangerous. Or perhaps adults already have some antibodies to other coronaviruses and the response is mismatched, leading to later overreaction. Children lacking such antibodies may be why they don't experience an overreaction. Their immune system quickly targets and eradicates the virus. This might mean their viral load is lower, which would be why younger children are less likely to spread the virus. The mismatch in an immune response can actually do more harm than good. The latter reason I think is good news for a vaccine, which is that building an attenuated antibody response to this coronavirus will likely keep people out of hospitals.

However, what the article doesn't tell you is that those numbers about children spreading are within the household. So older children spread the disease as much as adults, inside the home. Does this surprise anyone? At least in households I know that have children, children do the opposite of social distancing (hugging, kissing, snuggling) more than adults.

The important data to note is the out-of-household spread. Of course, these are all variables outside the home whether children in school or adults out and about. Regardless, only 2% of cases were traced where children spread the virus outside the home. This could likely be their lack of contact outside the home compared to adults.

If the reason children don't get sick and die from the virus is that their immune system doesn't go whacky like it does with adults, then such is a clear testament to this coronavirus being not as biologically dangerous as the flu and other respiratory illnesses. What is dangerous is our immune system responding with overkill, pardon the pun.

The data accommodating for typical behavior of children shows that it is probably safe for elementary schools to open. Middle school and high school-age children learning from home is probably the best move for them - if their family can support it. I understood that k12.com is commonly used, which at least 5 years ago was much harder to figure out than any online college course I took.

The study does indeed show that though children are the lowest risk group of getting COVID-19, they do spread the coronavirus. Since the youngest children spread the virus the least, it would make sense they could go back to school.