3 ms·
> this is interesting news, but it annoys me a little bit that all it really says is that children "can" carry a higher viral load No it doesn't. In the first
by Someone1234 6y ago
> this is interesting news, but it annoys me a little bit that all it really says is that children "can" carry a higher viral load
No it doesn't. In the first paragraph it says:
> The infected children were shown to have a significantly higher level of virus in their airways than hospitalized adults in ICUs for COVID-19 treatment, according to Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Mass General Hospital for Children (MGHfC).
So they SHOWED in patients that it DOES have higher viral load. First paragraph.
The second paragraph contradicts your reading further:
> The study, “Pediatric SARS-CoV-2: Clinical Presentation, Infectivity, and Immune Reponses,” was published today in The Journal of Pediatrics.
> “I was surprised by the high levels of virus we found in children of all ages, especially in the first two days of infection,” says Lael Yonker, director of the
- civilized 6y agoMaybe there's a reasonable question about how susceptible children are to infection? Like, conditional on infection they have high viral loads that likely make them spreaders, but maybe it's hard for the virus to take hold in children? Just speculation, personally not inclined to believe it.
- johncearls 6y agoTo me the real issue here is how did they select the children. Unfortunately, I cannot find the paper. Why don't they ever link to these things? A likely restatement of this article is, "To have even mild symptoms of COVID, children need a much higher viral load than hospitalized adults." Again, I'd love to find the paper to see if my guess is right.
- lbeltrame 6y agoThe paper is at: https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(20)31023-4/fulltext https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(20)31023-4/fulltext
- johncearls 6y agoThanks! I'll note it is exactly what I thought. This was not a random population. This is children showing symptoms bad enough to warrant going to the hospital.