How Covid affects vaccinated and unvaccinated children

The nation’s top children’s doctor has explained what virus is like for unvaccinated and vaccinated kids - and how likely it will spread in school.

As kids prepare to return to school, one of the nation’s top child doctors says the risk of catching Covid-19 if children are vaccinated is extremely low and “like catching the flu” for the unvaccinated.

Infectious diseases paediatrician Professor Robert Booy says parents should be reassured that children are very unlikely to get seriously ill from the disease.

“Most children will have a cold with a runny nose or cough, perhaps a sore throat and a fever. Rarely does the Covid virus cause serious infection in children. It’s only likely to do so in someone with a major medical problem,” he said.

Prof Robert Booy says children are very unlikely to get Covid if they’re vaccinated and even if they’re not, the infection will be similar to a cold.

Some of the long-term problems associated with Covid including fatigue and shortness of breath are also far less common in children than adults, he said.

While children can transmit the disease in settings like schools, research shows it more commonly occurs at home - and it’s often adults who give the disease to kids rather than the other way around.

“An unvaccinated child can catch Covid and spread it but they’re less likely to spread it than an adult is,” Prof Booy said.

As for vaccinated children, Prof Booy says they’re even less likely to contract the disease and often either asymptomatic or with very mild symptoms if they do catch it.

“The immune system of children, teenagers and very young adults is very strong and very effective against the vaccine so the likelihood of catching any infection is very low. And if you do it’s going to be like a cold,” he said.

New research from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) found only 2 per cent of children who caught Delta in educational settings required hospitalisation.

Most children in the study were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms. This is despite the transmissibility of the Delta variant resulting in a five-fold increase in the spread of Covid-19 in schools and early childhood education centres compared to the original strain.