The coronavirus has continued to spread in the past year, with more than 26 million infected so far in the United States. While many are taking steps to try to prevent infection, it can be difficult to determine exactly how sick you can become. According to new research, however, you can protect yourself from COVID by staying away from the people who are most likely to spread the virus. Read on to find out which group is most likely to provide you with COVID and, for more ways to stay healthy, this is where you are most likely to get COVID, says the new study.
Researchers at Imperial College London recently used cell phone data from more than 10 million individuals to find out who is spreading the coronavirus, and published their findings on February 2 in Science. According to the survey, adults aged 20 to 49 were the only ones who contributed significantly to the spread of COVID in the United States in October 2020. In terms of cases, about 65 out of 100 COVID infections originate in this age group. . And to learn more about the future of the pandemic, that’s exactly when we will see the next increase in COVID, warn experts.
Older adults may be more vulnerable to the virus, but they are not the ones that mainly spread it. Neither are children and adolescents under the age of 20, although many schools reopen in the fall of 2020. According to the study, children aged 9 and under contributed less than 5 percent of the spread, while those aged between 10 and 19 were responsible for less than 10% of the spread. In comparison, adults aged 20 to 49 years were responsible for 72.2 percent of the spread of COVID.
“Although children and adolescents have contributed more to the spread of COVID-19 since school closure mandates were suspended in the fall of 2020, we found that this dynamic has not changed substantially since the schools reopened,” Melodie Monod, researcher and co-author of the Imperial College London study, explained in a statement. And for the most up-to-date information, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported similar data on January 26. According to their findings, only 3.7 percent of cases in a COVID case study among teachers, staff and students were the result of dissemination within the school. The CDC also said that schools can be opened safely, as long as mitigation efforts are maintained, emphasizing that children are not contributing to the spread of the virus.
“In August and September, we didn’t have much data on whether or not we would see the same kind of rapid spread in schools that we had seen in other high-density workplaces or residential locations.” Margaret Honein, PhD, a member of the CDC’s COVID emergency response team, said The New York Times. “But now there is accumulated data that with high compliance with the face mask and distance and cohort of students to minimize the total number of contacts, we can minimize the amount of transmission in schools.” And for more news about the coronavirus, Dr. Fauci has just issued this new alert about COVID.
According to the researchers at Imperial College London, more mitigation efforts need to be directed at those in the 20 to 49 age group. The study specifically referred to the need for mass vaccinations among this age group, as this “could bring resurgent COVID-19 epidemics under control”. However, most states are not vaccinating these adults, unless they are also health professionals or other essential professionals. According to a February 1 CDC report, almost 55% of vaccines in the U.S. so far have been for adults over 50. And for more vaccine news, if you’re over 65, you shouldn’t get this new vaccine, experts warn.