Kids and COVID-19 transmission

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Social distancing dividers are seen in a classroom at St. Benedict School, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Montebello, near Los Angeles, California, U.S., July 14, 2020. Credit: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson.

A new CDC study shows that nearly 600 campers and staffers arrived at a sleepaway camp in Georgia with proof that they were tested for COVID-19. More than three-quarters of the kids had positive results by the time the camp was forced to shut down. Meanwhile, political leaders, including President Trump, are insisting that kids should return to classrooms.

“Kids may catalyze another wave [of the epidemic]. If you think this is bad, the fall and winter may be worse. And kids going to school and coming home from school every evening may be part of that dynamic. … I think schools can open, and in ways that will depend on the local community,” says Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine.