{"id":1266,"date":"2021-03-31T08:55:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T12:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2021-03-31T08:55:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T12:55:55","slug":"how-dangerous-is-it-to-have-unvaxxed-kids-playing-together-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/?p=1266","title":{"rendered":"How dangerous is it to have unvaxxed kids playing together outside?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Question:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>My sister and her family traveled to visit her in-laws down south (via flight, several airports) and are headed our way later this week to\u00a0hang out for a day.\u00a0 Both she and her husband are fully vaxxed.\u00a0 They are coming with my two nieces\u00a0(ages 8 and 10).\u00a0 How dangerous is it to have my unvaxxed kids playing outside with her unvaxxed kids for the day? Our main driver of concern is that our\u00a0nieces will have been in multiple airports over spring break season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer:\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Individual-level risk assessments are difficult because of all the factors at play among the [potentially] infected host, the environment, and the susceptible host (see Q&A of 11\/16<\/a>).\u00a0 I’ve attempted to break down these factors a bit below.\u00a0 There’s a lot you can do to minimize risk.\u00a0 Here are a few suggestions: a) keep the kids’ interactions outdoors, like you plan; b) have the kids keep their masks on; c) try to ensure good mask fit for all four kids; d) when the kids need to eat or the like, have them keep ample distance between themselves; e) try to minimize the kids’ shouting, especially at close-distance.\u00a0 It might also help assuage concerns if you talk with your sister about the public health practices they follow(ed) on their trip.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Your nieces’ potential\u00a0exposure: They’ve been traveling, visiting family, and moving through 2+ airports.\u00a0 That’s a lot of potential exposure opportunities.\u00a0 Have they been consistently wearing their masks?\u00a0 Keeping their distance?\u00a0 Washing their hands?\u00a0 Clearly, these behaviors reduce potential exposure.\u00a0 Did they get tested before flying?\u00a0 Having a negative test won’t remove all possibility of infection, but it will also assuage some concern.\u00a0 Was the extended family also vaccinated? With vaccination limiting infection risk, your nieces’ potential exposure is also reduced.\u00a0<\/li>
  2. Your nieces’ potential infectivity: If your nieces were infected, then we’d want to understand their potential infectivity– droplets expelled, viral particles per droplet, fraction of droplets that make it past the facemask, etc.\u00a0 Here, we know that infected children have similar viral loads as adolescents and adults<\/a>, however, the overall infectivity of children is less than adults with a recent\u00a0PLOS<\/em>\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0estimating children’s infectivity to be 63% (95% CI: [37%, 88%]) relative to that of adults.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>
  3. The environment: We know that COVID transmits far more easily in closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings.\u00a0 Keeping the children outdoors will greatly minimize risk as any viral droplets\/aerosols will be quickly dispersed.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>
  4. Your kids’ susceptibility:\u00a0 Here we’re thinking about things like the fraction of droplets inhaled, your kids’ underlying health, duration of exposure, and mask use\/fit.\u00a0 All of these factors influence your children’s susceptibility.\u00a0 I will note that a recent study found<\/a> that “the susceptibility of children (under 20 years old) is 43% (95% CI: [31%, 55%]) of the susceptibility of adults.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Question:\u00a0My sister and her family traveled to visit her in-laws down south (via flight, several airports) and are headed our way later this week to\u00a0hang out for a day.\u00a0 Both she and her husband are fully vaxxed.\u00a0 They are coming with my two nieces\u00a0(ages 8 and 10).\u00a0 How dangerous is it to have my unvaxxed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[85,38,100,60,17,18],"tags":[168],"class_list":["post-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-immunity","category-masks","category-risk","category-risk-reduction","category-transmission-routes","tag-travel","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/covidqanda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pexels-photo-4430308.jpeg?fit=1880%2C1253&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covidqanda.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}