As U.S. schools reopen, concerns grow that kids spread coronavirus

As U.S. schools reopen, concerns grow that kids spread coronavirus /Reuters

U.S. students are returning to school in person and online in the middle of a pandemic, and the stakes for educators and families are rising in the face of emerging research that shows children could be a risk for spreading the new coronavirus.

Several large studies have shown that the vast majority of children who contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have a milder illness than adults. Early reports did not find strong evidence of children as major contributors to the deadly virus that has killed more than 780,000 people globally.

Hermione's parents are among those who have taken comfort from scientific research which suggests children are at a lower risk of death, and taken their guard down against the the virus.

The eight-year-old girl contracted coronavirus in the U.S. six months after she flew from Wuhan, the original epicenter of COVID-19 in China earlier this year. 

"When we evacuated, we thought, 'We're getting her to safety,'' James Dickey, Hermione's father told the Wall Street Journal. The 43-year-old father himself also tested positive for coronavirus just a couple days ago.

In the U.S., he said, the "inability to control the virus made it exponentially worse. I've just been watching with a jaw dropped."

Hermione spent her summer swinging and trampolining with her cousins, whose mother also recently tested positive, according to her father. 

He recalled that tough measures enforced in China including strict home confinement made him realize that the seriousness of the health emergency. On the contrary, he was shocked by the lax public response in the U.S.