Spread of Delta Variant Marks ‘Most Dangerous’ Time in Pandemic for Kids, May Force Schools to Re-Up Safety Measures, Experts Say
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Updated, June 29
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The highly contagious Delta COVID variant quickly spreading through the U.S. may force schools to double down on mitigation measures in order to reopen safely later this summer and into the fall, health experts say.
It’s “one of the most dangerous time periods [in the pandemic] for people who aren’t vaccinated,” Taylor Nelson, a University of Missouri medical doctor specializing in infectious disease, told The 74. That includes large numbers of young people, she said.
The Delta variant now accounts for about 20 percent of all new U.S. cases, up from about 10 percent two weeks ago, and has led to surges in youth infections abroad.
In England, where the academic year runs until mid-July, a due to testing positive for the virus, self-isolation or school closures — marking the most disrupted week of learning since the country fully reopened classrooms in March.
Israel, which has led all countries in its vaccination push but has only immunized , saw the number of COVID patients in its education system in the past week.
People who have received both vaccine doses have a high level of protection against the new mutation, doctors say. But because youth under 12 are not yet eligible to receive COVID shots, and with immunization rates , Joshua Petrie, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, worries that the rise of the Delta variant could elevate the risk for unvaccinated youth.
“Kids are probably the group now that are most susceptible to infection,” he told The 74.
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to expand their emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccines to children in the .
In a revision to masking guidelines, spread of the Delta variant spurred — as well as the — to recommend that all people, regardless of vaccination status, wear face coverings in indoor spaces. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the other hand, when asked about the WHO’s shift in stance, to their current guidance, which says fully vaccinated people can go mask-free.
Concern stems in part from new reports out of Israel that about were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, prompting the government to reimpose sanctions to stop the virus’s spread, including the return of masking requirements.
Even as fears mount, in-person classes should be a priority next year, says Robin Lake, director of the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education. Remote learning often meant fewer hours of live instruction with teachers and spurred severe learning deficits.
“We have got to get kids back in school as soon as possible,” Lake wrote in an email to The 74.
To keep young people safe when the school year resumes this fall, Petrie anticipates that the now-familiar safety protocols employed throughout 2020-21 may be necessary, despite the fact that many states and districts scrapped their mask mandates in May and June.
“All the tools that we’ve been using over the past year and a half [such as masking and ventilation] would still be available,” said the infectious disease expert, while stressing that local levels of community spread would determine exactly what mitigation measures would be appropriate.
“Even though we’re all dealing with pandemic fatigue, this is not the time to relax,” Nelson added.
The Delta variant, which is than the U.K.-originated Alpha strain, has quickly . Scientists fear that a recently identified further mutation, dubbed “Delta plus,” could be . There is minimal evidence, however, that Delta cases are more severe than infections from other strains.
“It spreads like wildfire in places where you have fewer people vaccinated,” said the University of Missouri doctor.
In the southern portion of her state, where fewer shares of individuals have been immunized against COVID-19, the Delta variant is thought to be the driver behind a at one health center. In Colorado, after an outbreak in Mesa County, health experts estimate that now . More than 90 percent of the individuals getting sick are not known to have received any vaccine before their hospitalization, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports.
Alarming transmission rates have prompted the Biden administration to , after acknowledging last week that the country would among eligible populations by July 4.
Low immunization rates have some health experts especially concerned for students in southern states.
“There’s the intersection of a lower vaccination rate in lots of parts of the South, an increasing spread of Delta in lots of parts of the South and it’s where kids will be back in the classroom earlier than other parts of the country,” Rebecca Wurtz, professor of health policy at the University of Minnesota, told The 74. “All those things combine to make it a higher risk for kids.”
But regardless of local context, Nelson’s message to parents is that the best way to protect their kids — at least those who are eligible for shots — is to get the vaccine.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know that we’re at the end of this [pandemic], so the more immunity you give your kid the better,” she advised.
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