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SALT LAKE CITY – Medical experts say it was “wishful thinking” to believe COVID-19 doesn’t make children as sick as adults.
“Children are sensitive. Children transmit the virus and we are in a precarious position because of it, ”said evolutionary virologist Stephen Goldstein.
READ: Cox considered issuing executive order to allow school mask requirement
In a press event on Wednesday, health experts from the University of Utah rejected a widely accepted theory that COVID-19 is gentle on young children.
“I’m going to pull out a bit of a limb here and say I think that was wishful thinking for the most part. I don’t think it makes a lot of sense based on what we know about other respiratory viruses, ”Goldstein said.
Goldstein said the data was skewed last year due to distance learning and mandatory classroom masking.
“This year the children are in school and the masks are removed in most cases and we are seeing an extremely rapid growth rate of the epidemic among young children. My concern is that it will increase throughout, ”he said.
READ: Utah reports 1,585 new COVID cases Wednesday, 374 are children
It was a theory that a Salt Lake County Council member used as a reason to shoot down a mask mandate recommendation for elementary school students earlier this month.
Aimee Winder Newton writes on Facebook: “I don’t think a mask warrant is the right solution at this time because COVID is such a low risk for children in this age group.”
“They have serious consequences,” said Emily Spivak, University of Utah Health’s infectious disease division.
WATCH: 2 of Utah’s biggest healthcare providers: There is no longer an excuse not to get the vaccine
Eleven Utah children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 just since Friday. While the frequency of serious illness and hospitalizations is lower in children than in adults, Spivak says it is higher than the flu.
“There are clearly children who have had a long COVID or who have a long COVID. There have been cases of inpatient MISC in other parts of the country and these rates clearly appear to be increasing, ”Spivak said.
Health experts are calling for masking in schools and vaccinations among those eligible to protect children.
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