According to the study’s lead author Seth Flaxman, though it is weird for children and teens to die, it was found Covid-19 is the leading underlying cause of infectious disease deaths in this age group.
“Many of the 82 million American children and teens got infected during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks and, as a result, over 1,300 children and young people died of Covid-19 during the pandemic, most of them in the last two years,” Flaxman added.
Covid-19 accounted for 2% of all causes of death among Americans aged 0 to 19, according to the study based on data collected for epidemiological research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The study also noted that American children under the age of one were the most vulnerable, with a mortality rate of four per 100,000.
The Covid-19 death rate among people aged 0 to 19 was one per 100,000, ranking ahead of influenza and pneumonia.
As of CDC´s figures, children are less protected against Covid-19 than any other age group in the United States.
Less than 10% of eligible American children have received their updated booster vaccination, and over 90% of American children under the age of five are not fully vaccinated.
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