the virus affects young children differently, kakkar said, leading her to believe that worries of children contracting covid-19 at school and becoming gravely ill are largely inflated.
covid-19 has so far killed no children in canada, she said; less than 100 have been hospitalized with the virus, and less than 20 have landed in intensive care. compare that with last year’s influenza season, she said, which saw 15,000 cases among children, 200 of whom ended up in the icu and seven of whom died.
but though they don’t get as sick, there are new concerns about the role children play in spreading the virus. an
article in the medical journal of australia published online this week
claimed that, contrary to claims made by some researchers, children do play an important role in spreading covid-19.
“research suggesting otherwise is hampered by substantial bias,” wrote the article’s author, dr. zoë hyde. “additionally, large clusters in school settings have been reported, with implications for the control of community transmission.”
in the early days of the pandemic, dr. horacio arruda, quebec’s top public health official, had echoed the idea that children played a diminished role in spreading the virus. preliminary data in the spring, which also came from australia, suggested that school-age children were ineffective covid-19 spreaders. arruda commented on the early research: “contrary to what we thought, in relation to influenza — that (children) become very large transmitters of the disease in the population — this does not necessarily seem to be the case (for covid-19).”
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