Now they tell us.
While children may not die from coronavirus complications at anywhere the near the same rate as older humans, they can, in fact, carry the virus back home to their legal guardians according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study found that kids have infected people in their homes at a rate of about 25 percent.
Utilizing contract tracing data, a new study published by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention examined outbreaks at three child care facilities in Utah between April to July.
Twelve children were found to have contracted the virus at the facilities, and although the majority experienced only mild symptoms — with three being asymptomatic — together they spread the virus to at least 12 people outside of the facility.
One mother, who researchers believe was likely infected by her asymptotic child, was hospitalized after contracting the virus. In another facility, an 8-month-old child transmitted COVID-19 to both their parents.
Researchers found that the likely rate of transmission between children and those with whom they had close contact outside of the child care centers was 25 percent. Half of the cases were reported in mothers of the children, while an additional three occurred in siblings.
Assuming this relatively small study would find similar results across the entire country and millions of children, I think you get the picture.
This could have been useful information about two months ago.
It's September 15th and while many school districts have continued remote learning, many have also resumed in-person classes including the school system that members of my family attend. Colleges have also resume in-person classes in many locations and that has led to new outbreaks. And a majority of those cases may be asymptomatic, but how long is that going to last?
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't have a good feeling about the next several months and I'm not just referring to the scariest election of my lifetime. I feel like infecting tens of thousands of children and young adults and then sending them home for the winter is a recipe for a third surge.
A vaccine may be approved for use near the end of the year, but it will take months if not the entire next year to actually distribute it widely to hundreds of millions of Americans. Personally, I have no health care, no money, and I'm transgender, so I'll be surprised if I receive a vaccine until 2022. The rest of my family will likely be near the front of the list, so that provides me some comfort.