A study published Tuesday by Yale University found that children enrolled at day-care centers were at low risk for transmitting COVID-19.
The study surveyed more than 57,000 child-care providers in the U.S. and was reported by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.
Children in day-care programs present virtually no risk of transmitting Covid-19 to adults, according to a new Yale University study of more than 57,000 U.S. child-care providers https://t.co/AEXfjSdcWX
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 14, 2020
“For parents, it might be a little bit of cold comfort, because they’re worried about their particular child,” Dr. Walter Gilliam, a child psychologist at Yale and lead author of the study, told the WSJ. “But it’s clear that child care doesn’t pose a threat to communities.”
Gilliam clarified that child-care providers did contract COVID-19 but said it was not from contact with children, per the report. (RELATED: More Than 300,000 Children Have Been Infected With Coronavirus Since The Start Of The Pandemic, Report Says)
“It doesn’t appear that working in child care leads to the spread of Covid-19,” Dr. Gilliam reportedly said. “It is true that many child-care providers did get sick. Many of them even went to hospitals. But it was not the contact with children in child care that seems to be the source of that infection.”
The results of the study seem to line up with the popular idea that children aren’t as susceptible to the virus, Dr. Kristin Moffitt, a physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, told WSJ.
“You would think that daycares would be hotbeds, but they’re not, and this study is consistent with that,” Dr. Moffitt told WSJ. “The younger the age of the population, the less they seem to be contributing to transmission.”