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A new 40,000-person study from Iceland has found that children under 15 are about half as likely as adults to be infected with COVID-19 and, when they do catch the virus, only half as likely as adults to transmit it to others.

As U.S. officials grapple with school closures in the midst of the country鈥檚 deadliest surge in coronavirus cases to date, and as failure to control the virus has led to , the findings deliver the most definitive numbers thus far on youth infection and transmission. The results come from contract tracing and genetic sequencing conducted by Iceland鈥檚 Directorate of Health and Reykjavik-based human-genomic company deCODE genetics.

鈥淸Children] can and do get infected and transmit to others, but they do both less frequently than adults,鈥� , deCODE鈥檚 chief executive, told .

The findings from Iceland build on the scientific consensus that when it comes to catching and spreading COVID-19. Some studies, however, put the immunological threshold even earlier, at . As children begin to go through puberty, it appears that their risk of contracting and transmitting the virus increases. Data from a national tracker of school coronavirus cases called , which includes case numbers from over 7,000 U.S. school districts, find that the rate of positive cases for high school students is .

As metropolitan school systems such as Chicago, Philadelphia, and the nation鈥檚 largest district, New York City, use these numbers to guide their reopening strategy, many worry that the teachers who share the classroom with younger students are not out of harm鈥檚 way. Educators鈥� fears of being sickened by the virus have at times . Many students鈥� and, in extreme cases, entire .

While student infections are far lower in elementary school than in high school, teacher case rates do not vary significantly by grade, national data show.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e concerned about staff exposure, then elementary schools aren鈥檛 that great,鈥� Rebekah Jones, who runs the COVID Monitor, told The 74.

Emily Oster, Brown University professor and curator of the , interpreted the staff case numbers differently, chalking them up to community spread.

鈥淭he reason for [the comparable rates among teachers across grade level] is likely that infections are occurring outside school,鈥� she told The 74 over email. 鈥淪o it just suggests the outside activities are similar in the two groups of teachers.鈥�

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration formula from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, a major step toward thwarting the pandemic in the U.S. It remains unclear, however, whether young people under 16 will have access to the shots and whether teachers will get priority in line, meaning the science on school-level transmission will remain critical.

Scientific studies offer preliminary insight on why youth and adults interact with the virus differently. One potential explanation, based on an antibody study published in , lies in young people鈥檚 dynamic immune system, which uses 鈥渘ew T-cells鈥� that may be able to adapt to COVID-19 as opposed to adults鈥� 鈥渕emory T-cells鈥� that rely on exposure to past contagions and are not as effective.

鈥淪chool-age children, they鈥檙e designed to respond to new pathogens efficiently,鈥� Donna Farber, a Columbia University immunologist and study co-author, told The 74 last month.

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