When it comes to COVID, the greatest risk to children is the risk of spreading the disease to adults that they depend on.
That’s according to Upper Cumberland Medical Society Member Dr. James Gray. Gray said that according to state data, only 17 percent of school-age children in the Upper Cumberland have gotten at least one vaccination, compared to the state’s average of 31 percent.
“At least 58 percent of school-age children in the Upper Cumberland have neither tested positive nor received the vaccine,” Gray said. “And we have to assume at least 58 percent are fully susceptible to contract the disease and spread it to more vulnerable people.”
Gray said that there have been 1300 deaths in the Upper Cumberland since March 2020. He said that his main concern is that many of those deaths were important to the children dependent upon them.
Gray said that when it comes to a pandemic, every human on the planet will eventually come into contact with the disease. He said that it makes the most sense to build immunity to the virus through the vaccine, including kids.
“They will either survive or they will build immunity to it and the safest way of getting immunity is through the vaccine,” Gray said.
Gray said that while school-age children have a low risk of life-threatening complications from COVID-19 or the vaccine, it has been determined that the vaccine has a lower risk.
Using data from the Tennessee Department of Health, Gray said that since June 2021–when Delta first arrived–there have been 377 deaths in the Upper Cumberland. He said that this is an average of two deaths a day. Now as we head into the Christmas season, Gray said that the region has picked up to about four deaths a day, the same as last year.
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