Despite COVID fatigue hitting everyone the disease is still present. The recent availability of vaccine doses for ages 5-11 seems a good reason to look at the data for the young. I aggregate the case data from the daily level to monthly and take a look comparing the months.
As mentioned in prior posts it is not a surprise to see the cases count for the youngest age range to be up because more kids are in school, that is, fewer are in some kind of remote option. More kids in a public setting, even with safety precautions, will create more cases. This is not the end of the story though. What is at least equally important is the percentage of cases that are in this age group.
Once again we see the percentage for the youngest age group reached a new pandemic peak. A large chunk of this age group is now eligible to receive vaccines which may have the effect of reducing both the case count and the percentage.
Covid is still a disruption and occurring in the younger age groups which can be as big a disruption as any, requiring parents to at least take care of sick children, or perhaps even quarantine as a result of exposure, or even get COVID themselves, and unfortunately maybe sick.
Along with all the other economic problems right now, supply chain issues, price volatility, labor shortages, COVID remains a serious health and economic threat in need of a solution.
