- New research suggests that COVID-19 could become as prevalent as the common cold and would affect mostly children in the future.
- This is because children would have no immunity either through vaccination or exposure to the virus.
- The viral disease could become seasonal and affect mainly younger children similar to other common childhood diseases.
Up until recently, COVID-19 has primarily taken a major toll on adults compared to children. But new research suggests that as the SARS-CoV-2 virus becomes endemic across the world, COVID-19 could become as prevalent as the common cold and would affect mostly children who wouldn’t have been vaccinated or exposed to the virus yet.
While this sounds frightening the researchers clarify that children are far less likely to have severe symptoms related to COVID-19. As a result, the overall effects of the disease will be lessened.
The study was published in the journal Science Advances this month.
Researchers from both the United States and Norway developed a mathematical model to look at how COVID-19 cases could affect different age groups in the future.
Using their model, they studied demography, social mixing, and duration of infection-blocking and disease-reducing immunity to analyze potential future scenarios for age and mortality for COVID-19.
This predictive modeling “can be very helpful to those in government and public health who are responsible for identifying the future impact of SARS CoV-2 and the resources that will be needed to manage it,” said Dr. Michael Grosso, chief medical officer and chair, pediatrics, Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital.
“It was the conclusion of these researchers that COVID-19 will do what other epidemic respiratory viruses have done in the past, which is to transition to a routine, seasonal infection, and involve young children more than others,” Grosso said.
Source: healthline