Babies and toddlers are more likely to pass on the coronavirus to people in their households than older children and teenagers, a study found.
Although young children are less likely to be infected than teens, because they are generally cared for directly and in close contact, there is a significantly increased chance of communicability, the study said.
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The study, published Monday in the peer-reviewed JAMA Pediatrics, said children 3-years-old or younger are more likely to infect other people in their homes than teenagers ages 14 to 17.
"The 0-to-3-year-old child is held differently, is cuddled," Dr. Paul Offit, director of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, explained to ABC. "The moat around the fire is the parents. They can be vaccinated.”
The study did not, however, conclude whether children are equally or more contagious, nor does it point to their age group as consequential to the pandemic.
Researchers used public health data collected last year from Ontario, Canada to examine 6,280 COVID-19 cases where a child introduced the virus to others in the household. The data available preceded vaccinations and the delta variant’s emergence.
In nearly three-fourths of the cases, only the child was infected. But for 27.3%, at least one other resident in the household caught the virus as well.
"We always knew children could get it, could transmit it, and could get sick with COVID," Dr. Edith Bracho Sanchez, a pediatrician and professor at Columbia University, said on Good Morning America Monday. "I think we're learning more and more just how much."
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"It just shows how humble we have to be when it comes to children and this virus,” she continued, noting the new research negates some past suggestions. At the outset of the pandemic, some experts had believed younger people were less infectious. It’s now believed their lower transmission rate was because of pandemic-related limitations on social encounters.
Teenagers are more likely to contract the virus and introduce it to their households, Dr. Susan Coffin, a colleague of Offit, told the Times, pointing out how social older children and teenagers are. But young children tend to be in closer physical contact with others in the household, she said.
“Once they bring it into the household, it can be spread easily,” said Dr. Coffin.
Doctors said this research affirms the need for public health mitigation strategies, including mask-wearing and social distancing, at schools and childcare facilities.
“This means we urgently need to think about how we’re going to protect schools when they reopen shortly,” epidemiologist Zoe Hyde told the New York Times.
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