| A vaccine expert says children will likely pay the price for adults in the U.S. not getting vaccinated at high enough rates to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19, which has been surging in most states.
Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN Tuesday that if vaccination rates among adults and kids 12 and older continue to lag amid increased spread of the virus, the youngest members of the population will be most affected.
“Transmission will continue to accelerate … and the ones who will also pay the price, in addition to the unvaccinated adolescents, are the little kids who depend on the adults and adolescents to get vaccinated in order to slow or halt transmission.”
In 46 states, the rates of new cases this past week are at least 10% higher than the rates of new cases the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Many more adolescents could become hospitalized, Hotez said, adding up to 30% of children infected will develop long-haul COVID-19.
Scientists are now learning about neurological consequences to long-haul COVID-19, Hotez added. Some studies have shown impacts on the brain of people who have been infected with the virus. One study in April found 34% of COVID-19 survivors received a diagnosis for a neurological or psychological condition within six months of their infection.
“What you’re doing is condemning a whole generation of adolescents to neurologic injury totally unnecessarily,” Hotez said. “It’s just absolutely heartbreaking and beyond frustrating for vaccine scientists like myself to see this happen.”
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