(2021-03-31) Coronavirus Vaccines Are Coming For Kids But Studies Have To Be Finished First

Coronavirus vaccines are coming for kids — but studies have to be finished first. In the early days of the pandemic, experts debated why so few children were becoming infected and why those who did so often had few or no symptoms. They rarely suffered serious illness. It is now clear that when tests were limited, children were simply not being counted. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children make up about 13 percent of U.S. infections.

Serious cases are scarce in children compared with older adults, and they account for between 1 percent and 3 percent of hospitalizations, according to state data compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“You can fairly state that deaths due to influenza each season are about the same as due to covid-19 in children, and we don’t jump through all the hoops to close schools,” said H. Cody Meissner, a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston