Debunking Three Common Myths about Kids and COVID

Widespread claims that kids are “naturally immune” are not backed by data.

The FDA recently approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for 12–15-year-olds. But now that these adolescents are eligible, will their parents encourage them to get vaccinated?

Recent articles in the Atlantic and New York Times may have undermined vaccination rates among kids by claiming that COVID poses a “low risk” to kids in order to agitate for school reopening, in person summer camps, and allowing kids to socialize outside without masks.

While I agree with all of these positions — largely because the risk of outdoor transmission is incredibly low, and because mitigation measures like masking work well in preventing school outbreaks — the data do not support the idea that COVID presents only a “low risk” to kids.

Myth 1: Kids don’t get or spread COVID.

From the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiologists have noted that “kids” seem less likely to fall ill from COVID. But this defines “kids” broadly, when, as any pediatrician will tell you, a 5-year-old is very different from a 12-year-old, who is in turn different from an 18-year-old, when it comes to their risk of disease.

The same holds true for kids’ risk of contracting and spreading COVID. Kids under 10 are less likely to contract and spread COVID, whereas adolescents look more like adults.

The CDC’s data on cases by age in the U.S. shows this clearly.

As you can see, children under 5 have a markedly lower risk than do older adolescents and adults, while children aged 6 to 13 have a risk of contracting COVID that is somewhere in between the younger and older children.

Moreover, even for children under 5, who are indeed less likely to contract and spread COVID, the risk is not zero. The most recent estimate based on a meta-analysis of 32 studies involving 41 640 children and adolescents was that kids under 11 were about half as likely to transmit or contract COVID as adults.