Experts: Children are not immune

A panel of local health professionals want to set the record straight on one of the more common misconceptions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

That children are not immune to coronavirus.

“Children are catching this infection,” said Dr. Johanna Kelly, a pediatrician at Reading Pediatrics. “The symptoms are often mild to nonexistent so there’s probably a lot of asymptomatic spread that we don’t even know that is happening.”

Kelly was one of three health professionals who shared their perspective on how the disease is impacting children and athletes at a time when Berks County is experiencing a surge in new cases during a press event hosted by the county commissioners Wednesday afternoon.

Kelly cited a study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics to support her view of the situation that found that nearly 625,000 child cases of COVID19 were reported from the start of the pandemic through September. That accounted for about 10.5% of all cases in states reporting infections according to age.

“Children are not invincible,” Dr. Tom Kohl, a family and sports medicine physician at Tower Health Medical Group, told the board. “They can get the infection so it’s really important that the schools follow through on the plans that were put in place.”

The good news, however, was that the study found the number of children hospitalized because of COVID- 19 and the number who died was small.

But both Kelly and Kohl stressed that even though children often show no symptoms they can still spread the virus, including to older family members who are more likely to have a severe illness.

Kelly noted a study of three child care centers in Utah conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that young children can spread the virus to the rest of the population. Out of 110 children at the centers, 13 tested positive for COVID- 19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, and then spread the disease to at least 12 people outside the facility.

Kelly and Kohl agreed that while the coronavirus is sparing the bodies of children, the global health crisis has not been so kind to their minds. They said that nobody is immune to the stress that comes with a pandemic and related isolation.

“We are seeing an increase in anxiety and depression, especially among teens and their parents,” she said. “I think the challenges are enormous right now. And it just seems in general that we’re fielding a lot of concerns about that from our patients.” Kohl agreed. He said that is the biggest reason why he believes it is important for students to try to regain some kind of normalcy in their lives. That means returning to classroom and to the playing field. But, he warned, only if the proper mitigation efforts are in place.

“Schools are doing a really nice job at controlling this,” he said. “And sports are very important for adolescents for a number of reasons that include their mental health.”

Kelly added that getting back to normal is going to take everyone working together.

She said that means encouraging children to continue to wear masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing. And ultimately, that responsibility also falls on the shoulders of adults to set a good example.