CDC’s Walensky: ‘Don’t Have Any Evidence’ Delta Variant Makes Kids Sicker

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky admitted on Wednesday that the Delta variant of the coronavirus isn’t making children any sicker.

CNN “New Day” host John Berman asked Walensky about the high survival rate from the United Kingdom means the new variant isn’t making kids sicker.

Walensky said there is not “any evidence” to support that it is, but she stressed that the coronavirus has “more than twice the mortality rate” in influenza in a given year.

“Now, the Delta variant isn’t making kids any sicker, per se. Is it? Because the statistics come back from children and COVID from the UK, what did we learn there? Some 99.995% of the 470,000 children in England infected survived. I mean, that’s an incredible survival rate. The Delta variant isn’t making kids any sicker, is it?” Berman asked.

“We don’t have any evidence that it’s doing so, and that’s really great news,” Walensky replied. “But I do want to emphasize, and I know all of the data — and it is so true that all of the data say the kids do better than the adults. Transmission is less in schools than it might be in other places when prevention strategies are in place. But I think it’s really important for people to understand that this is not a benign disease in kids compared to other diseases that our kids see. So, if you look at the mortality rate of COVID, just this past year for children, it’s more than twice the mortality rate that we see in influenza in a given year.”

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