NewsCoronavirusLocal Coronavirus News

Actions

Teens more likely to catch the coronavirus than older adults, according to a study that included Utah kids

Study contradicts earlier research that said youth were less susceptible to the virus.
Posted
and last updated

SALT LAKE CITY — Teens and young adults have a higher chance of getting infected with the coronavirus than older adults, according to a new study that uses data from Utah and five other states, and contradicts past research and conventional wisdom.

“It was a surprise that the effect was so high, because at the time people were saying, ‘Oh, children are not susceptible; you hardly see it in kids,’” said Dr. Barbara Rumain, lead author on the study that was published Wednesday in the open-access medical journal PLOS ONE.

Rumain said she and her co-authors — Mosche Schneiderman at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and Allan Geliebter at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai — didn’t expect to see results showing children would catch the virus more frequently than older adults.

“We thought it would be probably around the same, maybe a little less, but not that much less,” Rumain told The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday.

Click here to read the full story from The Salt Lake Tribune.