How well do children grasp the risks and realities of COVID? They might be savvier than you think.
Previous studies of how children understand concepts of illness, germs, contagion and infection are helpful.
In early March 2020 – yes, it seems like a century ago — in most places the first lockdowns made clear the chilling reality of what would soon be declared a worldwide pandemic. The rollercoaster ride of one wave followed by a reprieve followed by another surge has left us all exhausted and drained. Vaccines have raised hopes but the Delta variant, and the specter of yet more deadly and contagious future variants, have dashed those hopes once again.
And now, another school year opens in the Age of Covid. For parents, caregivers, and family members, the nagging question is: “How safe will my child be in the classroom?” More broadly, as we move toward the third year of Covid, with no end in sight, we confront an unsettling thought: Our children are growing up in a Covid world. Even if we can keep them safe from infection and disease—a big IF—we cannot shield them from the larger reality.
These results, and others like them, suggest that children can understand the basic mechanisms of infectious respiratory diseases. By implication, then, they also probably readily grasp the utility of measures that interrupt modes of transmission. If you can"catch" a novel disease when a friend sneezes and coughs all over you, then preventing that through masking, sanitation, and distancing should be easily understood as well.
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