Children: Vectors of COVID Spread?

A new study from the UK suggests that children are not, in fact, significant vectors of COVID risk.

How much would you say that having one or more young, unvaccinated children (0-11 year olds) in the household increases the household’s risk for COVID?

Well, luckily we have some empirical data on that.

A massive BMJ study of 12 million people from the UK found that the increase in COVID risk is a whopping 0.01%-0.05% in the household if you’ve got a child 0-11 in the household. The numbers are similar to those living with 12-18 year olds.

Not only were increases in COVID very small, but this did not translate into materially increased risk of COVID-19 mortality.

Can we perhaps stop treating children as second-class vectors of spread? When will their social, educational and emotional needs matter enough to be paramount again?