The highly contagious strain of COVID-19 known as B.1.1.7 is now in all 50 states – and the data suggests that it can affect children more than people realize.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, recently said Boston 25 News that B.1.1.7 made him rethink his position on the reopening of schools for face-to-face learning. “It is a totally different virus in the sense of what it is doing epidemiologically,” he said. “I think school openings today will greatly improve the transmission of B.1.1.7 in our communities, and I anticipate that in a few weeks we will be revisiting this problem, unfortunately, after we have had a substantial transmission.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) list B.1.1.7 as a “variant of concern”, which means that researchers are keeping an eye on it. The variant appears to spread easily and quickly and may cause a greater risk of death than the previous variants.
According to CDC data, B.1.1.7 is now the most widely circulated variant in the United States, representing 32 percent of cases in the country.
Other data suggested that the variant is more likely to infect children. A report published in the British Medical Journal found that more than 50,000 Israeli children tested positive for the virus in January, which was more than any month during the country’s first and second wave of the virus. In Italy, 10 percent of the village of Corzano tested positive for COVID-19 on February 3 – and 60 percent of those were babies and school children, who then passed the virus on to adults.
A research article published in the journal Science also found that children are more likely to be infected with B.1.1.7 than other worrying variants.
But … what does this mean for children in the USA?
It is difficult to say with certainty, Dr. Juan Salazar, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases and chief physician of Connecticut Children’s, told Yahoo Life. “B.1.1.7 is more contagious and, lately, there has been greater contact between children than it was six months or a year ago,” he says. “As a result, there is a greater risk of spread.”
In Michigan, which is currently experiencing a large increase in cases – including those due to B.1.1.7 – cases of COVID-19 among children aged 10 to 19 in the state increased 133 percent last week compared to previous four weeks, according to Detroit News.
“There are signs that children can spread the COVID variant in the UK more readily than they can spread the initial strain,” Dr. Lewis Nelson, professor and chief of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and head of department service University Hospital emergency room, tells Yahoo Life. “This would mean that, without proper precautions, they can bring the variant strain home or spread it to other people in other locations. This is a special concern for many, given the return to the classroom along with the reduction of distance. under the right circumstances. recommended by the CDC. The disease in children still appears to be mild, but has a small risk of serious effects. “
Infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety, told Yahoo Life that children are more likely to get B.1.1.7 in the United States now, simply because it is the strain dominant in circulation. “If children are being infected and B.1.1.7 is around, then they will get B.1.1.7,” he says.
But Dr. Richard Watkins, an infectious doctor and professor of internal medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University, told Yahoo Life that there may be something different about how the strain affects children. The increase in B.1.1.7 cases in children “may be related to better binding in children’s lung epithelial cells compared to other strains,” he says. (Epithelial cells provide a protective barrier in the lungs and help initiate immune responses to viruses and other illnesses.)
As to whether B.1.1.7 is more dangerous for children, it is difficult to say for sure at this point, Dr. Daniel Ganjian, a pediatrician at the Providence Saint John Health Center in Santa Monica, California, told Yahoo Life. “Children may be getting B.1.1.7, but that doesn’t mean they are getting sicker,” he says. Salazar agrees. However, he points out: “When more children are infected, there is a greater risk that more children will end up in the hospital.”
Still, Salazar adds, he did not see an increase in serious cases in children due to B.1.1.7 at his medical center. “This virus has affected children since the beginning of the pandemic, but I have not seen an increase in children arriving at the ICU because of B.1.1.7,” he says.
As for Nelson, he believes that B.1.1.7 may just be “more transmissible, and children have simply been a relatively protected host until now and therefore able to serve as a larger reservoir.”
In general, experts recommend that parents be diligent in keeping their children safe. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said at a news conference on Monday that young people are fueling COVID-19 cases across the country due to the reopening of youth schools and sports. “We are learning that many outbreaks in young people are related to youth sports and extracurricular activities. According to the CDC’s guidance, these activities should be limited, ”she said.
“We are concerned with schools having outbreaks linked to extracurricular activities,” says Adalja. “We have to be much more careful with extracurricular activities”.
Watkins encourages parents to continue to practice good COVID-19 safety protocols for themselves and their families, such as wearing a mask, social distance and careful hand hygiene. “It is easy to let your guard down with vaccination increasingly widespread, but obviously children cannot be vaccinated now,” he says.
Salazar agrees that it is important that families continue to be diligent about preventing COVID-19. “If we can do this and continue with the vaccines, hopefully, we will have a more peaceful summer,” he says.
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