COVID-19 in children: What to know to about the delta variant's impact on kids

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- New COVID-19 cases among children are increasing exponentially. Pediatric ICUs in some parts of the country are filling up with young COVID patients, like 12-year-old Amari Goodwin.

"I'm just glad right now because they did take her off the medically-induced coma. We still have a long road to go," said Misty Goodwin, Amari's mother.

"As the number of cases grows, the number of severe cases will grow," said Dr. Marc Lipsitch speaking at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Forum.

He said with high community transmission of the delta variant, kids will be impacted.

"There's every reason to believe that it's more contagious to children and from children than the older variants," he said.

While COVID may spread in schools, Lipsitch said right now homes and gatherings are where kids get infected most.

"It's clearly possible for a vaccinated adult infected with delta to infect a child, whether it happens with high frequency is going to be an important research question," Lipsitch said.

So when will vaccines be available for those aged 5 to 11? Lipsitch says probably not until next year, giving scientists time to study extremely rare side effects such as heart inflammation.

"We don't have data yet on what the risk from the vaccine is in the youngest people, and I think it's the FDA's responsibility to take it seriously and make sure that we have a handle on that before moving forward," he said.

Among California's 12- to 17-year-olds, 60% have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Lipsitch said making vaccines available in schools will increase uptake. As for the very young, he advises everyone around them to be masked and vaccinated. At some point, he says many families will decide traveling with kids under 5 is an acceptable risk.

"We take our children on car trips, and those have risks, too. It's not something to seek out anymore than we seek out a car crash, but it is something that we can balance against the desire to see our families," Lipsitch said.

Lipsitch is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a sophisticated surveillance system to analyze and forecast outbreaks. It's called the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. He said this data will help schools and families make safe decisions.