COVID-19 surge fueled by unvaccinated children in U.K., a warning for California
LA TimesChildren wait with their parents for the COVID-19 vaccine at Arleta High School on Monday. Unvaccinated adolescents have been the driving force behind a stubbornly persistent Delta surge in Britain, a potential warning sign for California if inoculation rates don’t improve considerably among this age group, health experts warn. “And even though we do have good vaccination rates, we need more people who are not yet vaccinated to get vaccinated.” The U.K.’s challenges demonstrate how its overall vaccination efforts — while better than California’s — are still not high enough for herd immunity, when sustained coronavirus transmission is interrupted. Among all pediatric groups, children 5 to 11 began suffering the highest rate of new weekly coronavirus cases, displacing youths 12 to 17 as having the worst case rate, according to data released by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The change “is likely a consequence of increasing vaccination levels among teens and having no vaccinations available for those children 5 to 11,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told the Board of Supervisors just before vaccines became available to children in that age group.