CLEVELAND — No matter what, we all want our kids to be safe in the classroom. And even doctors admit, the message around kids and COVID is confusing for a lot of families. In this week’s Mom Squad Pod Podcast, Maureen Kyle sat down with Dr. Amy Edwards, pediatric infectious disease specialist with University Hospitals, who says she sees a lot of kids recover quickly from COVID, and has some in ICU.
“I can't tell you how many of their parents have told me ‘wait, I thought kids couldn't get COVID’ or ‘I thought kids couldn't get sick from COVID’ or end up in the hospital,” says Edwards, “And it's a message I think that has been confusing because the emphasis has been on adults. And we keep hearing that kids are low risk kids are low risk and it is true that kids are low risk, but low risk does not mean no risk.”
Schools will be looking at what to do if school staff isn’t vaccinated, or whether or not to put a mask mandate in place.
But we asked Dr. Edwards – if a vaccinated adult is around an unvaccinated adult who has the virus, can the vaccinated adult still pass the virus to their kids?
“Yes, that is a theoretical risk however vaccinated individuals we know that vaccinated individuals can get sick from COVID. Right they're called breakthrough cases we've seen them we know that it happens. However, it appears that even if a vaccinated individual gets COVID either asymptomatic or symptomatic COVID it appears that they have a harder time transmitting it to the people around them.”
Dr. Edwards talks about what to do with kids and masks when it comes to school sports, grocery stores and a lot of other situations. You can listen to the entire interview with Dr. Amy Edwards on the Mom Squad Pod, anywhere you listen to your podcasts.