SAN DIEGO — Experts are growing more concerned as Coronavirus cases continue to spike nationwide, especially among children.
Many of those cases are connected to the new UK variant.
"We haven't seen the virus affecting kids under the 8th grade, and now that's what's happening, “ Matthew Schneck, a teacher at East Village High School in the San Diego Unified School District, said.
With many students returning for in-person learning April 12, Schneck said he’s not so much worried about himself, but rather the impact the UK strain is having on kids.
"I got my mask. I got my air purifiers. I was so fortunate that I was able to get the vaccine, so I feel like I have enough strategies to keep myself safe. I feel confident I'm gonna be ok. I'm really worried about children," he said.
Parents have shared similar concerns.
In Michigan, there were just over a 1,000 new cases per day in February.
Last week, that jumped to more than 5,400.
The largest increase was among newborns to 19-year-olds.
In Minnesota, the case rate has risen from 13.1 in February to 23.5 as of April 1.
60% of all new cases there are the UK variant, and more than 740 Minnesota schools have reported cases of that strain.
“With the schools open, kids have been infected,” Yaneer Bar-Yam, a scientist who specializes in pandemics, said.
He's also a professor and president of the New England Complex Systems Institute.
Bar-Yam said with a vaccine not yet approved for kids, he's worried what will happen here once more return to school.
“The whole idea of sending kids back to school and allowing the virus to propagate among children is not only a problem for the disease it's, also a problem for long COVID symptoms...long term disability,” Bar-Yam said.
In addition, as new variants are discovered, there's no guarantee the current vaccine will offer protection against certain strains.
"It should be clear as the virus changes, the vaccine will become less effective, and we don't know yet how ineffective the vaccine will be to new variants," he said.
Right now, there are several studies underway to see how well the current vaccines protect against new variants.
Experts say we can’t rely solely on vaccines and need to continue practicing other safety measures.
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