--- title: COVID-19 Risks for Kids Under 5: What Parents Should Know description: What parents need to know about COVID-19 risks for kids too young to get vaccinated, and how to keep them safe. canonical: https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-04-25T16:28:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:10:07.073Z article:section: Health og:title: COVID-19 Risks for Kids Under 5: What Parents Should Know og:description: What parents need to know about COVID-19 risks for kids too young to get vaccinated, and how to keep them safe. og:url: https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt559c0717e07d3525/698a314286f68e72bc6f12a4/Pre-school-COVID-19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4032 og:image:height: 2268 og:image:alt: Mother and child with a COVID-19 mask og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: COVID-19 Risks for Kids Under 5: What Parents Should Know twitter:description: What parents need to know about COVID-19 risks for kids too young to get vaccinated, and how to keep them safe. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt559c0717e07d3525/698a314286f68e72bc6f12a4/Pre-school-COVID-19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # COVID-19 Risks for Kids Under 5 Right Now: What Parents Should Know > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=648f2bc8-2ff6-46c2-a869-3e93aa2015e7&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Miracle Workers: The Scientists Behind The COVID-19 Vaccine [Watch (HLS stream): The Miracle Workers: The Scientists Behind The COVID-19 Vaccine](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BTNvQC2o.m3u8) (5:16)  _Published 2021-12-13. For those of us lucky enough to live in wealthy countries with access to these top-shelf vaccines, it has made all the difference. The miracle workers behind the COVID-19 vaccines are the TIME Heroes of the Year not only because they gave the world a defense against a pathogen, but also because the manner of that astonishing achievement guards more than our health: they channeled their ambitions to the common good, talked to one another and trusted in facts._  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Apr 25, 2022 4:28 PM UTC  mother & child waiting together at home for school bus with mother holding backpack & protective face mask mother & child waiting together at home for school bus with mother holding backpack & protective face mask Catherine McQueen  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Apr 25, 2022 4:28 PM UTC It’s a challenging time for parents anxiously awaiting the arrival of COVID-19 vaccinations for children under the age of 5\. In a report [published by Politico April 21](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/21/biden-kids-vaccine-covid-00026798), sources with insider knowledge warned that a vaccine may not be available for the youngest age group until late June. And after [a federal judge struck down a mask mandate](https://time.com/6168383/which-airlines-require-masks/) for public transportation on April 18—leading some plane passengers to remove their masks mid-flight—some parents expressed frustration that many people seem to forget that the littlest children still can’t be protected through vaccination. At the same time, many pediatric infectious disease specialists say there are several reasons that parents should feel reassured, even before a vaccine arrives. First and foremost: the risks of severe disease in children are still low relative to adults, and parents can layer on precautions to keep their kids safer. ### What do we know about COVID-19 risks for children under 5? Even though they’re still unvaccinated, children under 5 years old face low risk of severe disease after getting COVID-19\. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 468 children 4 and under have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. according to [Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data as of April 24](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/?CDC%5FAA%5FrefVal=https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html#demographics). In rare but serious cases, some children have been known to develop [Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome](https://www.cdc.gov/mis/index.html)—a potentially deadly condition in which organs like the heart, lungs and brain can become inflamed. But these numbers, relative to population size, represent a minuscule risk, especially compared to that seen among the elderly and those with underlying conditions. Further, these small risks aren’t equal for all children. According to Dr. Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious disease, babies under 6 months tend to be at higher risk for respiratory illnesses, and children with preexisting conditions, such as chronic lung disease, may be more vulnerable than healthy children. It’s too soon to tell if[ the latest variant causing rising cases in the U.S.—BA.2](https://time.com/6160259/ba2-covid-19-surge/)—will be especially dangerous for children under 5, says O’Leary. However, BA.2 seems to be at least 30% more transmissible than Omicron—which itself was more transmissible than previous variants that circulated in the U.S. “We are seeing cases rise, \[though\] they’re not rising as quickly as they did with Omicron. But it’s a little bit hard to predict where things are going to go from here,” says O’Leary. ## Some good news for this spring For all these risks, there is some “good news” about the current state of the pandemic, says O’Leary. Although cases are rising, the U.S. isn’t seeing a major surge yet, he says. It also helps, he says, that the weather is now getting warmer in the U.S.—people will have more of an opportunity to gather outside. And while children under 5 are too young to be vaccinated, that does not mean that their immune systems are completely naive to the virus. CDC data shows that, among this age group, more and more children have evidence of antibodies created by the body in response to SARS-CoV-2—suggesting a previous infection. Although prior infections don’t offer as much protection as vaccination, or vaccination plus infection, “the more immunity there is in a community, the fewer infections overall,” says O’Leary. However, he cautions that such protection should not be taken for granted. “We had a lot more infections with Omicron; seroprevalence has gone up for COVID—that’s not in question,” he says. “What is in question is exactly what that means, for both this BA.2 variant, and then also for future variants, in terms of protection.” ## How can parents keep kids under five safe? Even if there is no big surge over the next few months, that doesn’t mean parents should let their guard down. “We may not see rampant infection right now, but we may continue to see circulating virus in our communities for the foreseeable future,” says Dr. Ibukun Kalu, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Duke University Hospital. Unless the entire family remains alone and inside at all times, it may be impossible to take your child’s risk down to zero. However, combining different methods to reduce risk provides layers of protection. For one thing, says O’Leary, “outdoors is generally safer than indoors, smaller groups are generally safer than larger groups. If you’re in indoor spaces, being masked is generally safer than not being masked.” Further, just because the youngest children can’t get vaccinated yet doesn’t mean you should forget vaccination entirely. Older family members can help to protect kids under the age of 5 by getting vaccinated and boosted themselves. Research has even found that mothers who get vaccinated while they’re pregnant can [transfer some immunity to their unborn child](https://time.com/6148435/covid-19-vaccine-during-pregnancy/). For babies under 6 months, says O’Leary, “the best thing you can do…is one, mom gets vaccinated during pregnancy or before, and two, everyone that’s around that baby is vaccinated.” COVID-19 also isn’t the only disease you should be worrying about. A vaccine is available for kids over the age of 6 months for influenza—which can be deadly for young children. Many children have also [fallen behind on other vaccines](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7116a1.htm?s%5Fcid=mm7116a1%5Fw), which protect kids from diseases that, like measles, can be even more dangerous for children than COVID-19\. “We’re holding our breath, because \[measles\] rates went down as a result of the pandemic \[precautions\],” says O’Leary. But a surge “certainly could happen as travel loosens up. There’s plenty of measles around the world right now.” Kalu says that parents should be thinking about ways to protect their children not just from COVID-19, but from other infections. Especially for little kids, that includes teaching them to wash their hands, keeping the environment clean, and keeping children home when they’re feeling sick. “Those are things that work for a stomach virus, and for COVID-19,” says Kalu. ## Transcript [00:00] I think vaccines are misunderstood, and maybe it's because it seems like magic. [00:07] That simplicity and the mystery of it is something that ends up creating a lot of skepticism. [00:14] People are fooled by the speed. [00:17] Everything that we knew when it was time to design a vaccine for COVID-19, [00:22] we knew for so long, but the public had just become aware of it. [00:26] If this would happen two years ago, we would not be ready. [00:29] Saying that it happened overnight, it took two, three decades, at least. [00:34] 2021 was the year when so many praised the miracle of vaccine development. [00:40] In science, there is hardly ever a simple, quick fix. [00:44] But this was truly a moment of the right fix - [00:47] a brand new kind of vaccine technology - [00:50] at exactly the right time. [00:53] I started out in math, and I moved to biology. [00:56] And after medical school, I saw one of the first cases of HIV in Tennessee back in 1982. [01:03] And so the first part of my career was trying to understand [01:06] the immunology of vaccine-enhanced disease and trying to make vaccines safer. [01:12] I got interested in science when I was 16 years old. [01:16] I was hooked on the idea that you could go to work [01:20] and discover something that no one else in the world knows on any given day. [01:25] It seems at 16, I thought that maybe I will be a scientist. [01:30] I was always working with mRNA, I mean for 30 years at least. [01:35] And I never wanted to develop a vaccine. I wanted to develop it for therapy. [01:40] When I first came to Penn from the NIH, [01:44] pure luck hit where I met Kati Karikó over a Xerox machine. [01:49] And she told me she worked on RNA, and she could help us with our vaccine. [01:57] Every experiment doesn't work, every hypothesis isn't good. [02:01] It was a continuous flow of negative feedback. [02:05] But we saw the potential of the RNA and neither of us would give up. [02:11] Although mRNA can teach our cells to fight infection, it took doctors Karikó and Weissman [02:17] 16 years to figure out how to use it safely in a vaccine. [02:22] First when I made this RNA, actually I did not tell Drew Weissman, my colleague, [02:27] because I thought that maybe I mixed up something. [02:29] So I repeated the experiment and we could see that there was no inflammation in human cells. [02:35] We're both scientists. We're not baseball players who cheer when we hit a homerun. [02:41] We knew that it had great potential. [02:43] But what we thought about is what are we going to do with it? [02:47] Meanwhile, doctors Corbett and Graham spent years unlocking the structural secrets of viruses. [02:54] One of the really important problems in coronaviruses that had not been solved is really simple. [03:01] What does the coronavirus really look like to the immune system? [03:06] And to figure that out, you have to be able to take a really high definition picture [03:13] of the proteins that are on the surface of the coronavirus. [03:16] And then do some protein engineering to stabilize the structure. [03:21] At that moment, you realize that you have almost what is a universal strategy for creating a vaccine for coronaviruses. [03:32] A mysterious respiratory illness with similarities to SARS has healthcare workers around the world on alert. [03:40] What we said to each other, all's we need is a sequence and we're ready to go. [03:44] We can make a vaccine in weeks and get it into people very quickly. [03:52] The fact that we made a vaccine in 10 months, [03:56] and has the potential to end this pandemic, will certainly stand out. [04:01] "Do it mama!" (laughter) [04:04] Most scientists never get to see a product actually used. [04:09] And to watch the evening news and see the relief on healthcare providers getting immunized, [04:14] those were special moments. [04:16] I also get emotional when I got a letter from an elderly home, [04:22] and they reported that they received the vaccine. [04:26] There were like 200 elderly in that home. [04:30] And nobody died. [04:34] On social media, when children were going back to visiting their grandparents again. [04:40] Seeing people reunited in that way, it was a very surreal moment. [04:48] A surreal moment, and definitely worth celebrating, if only briefly before a return to work. [04:55] These scientists are now trying to apply their game-changing discoveries to other diseases. [05:01] Influenza, even cancer. [05:04] A brand new way to make a healthier, more equitable world. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/"},"headline":"COVID-19 Risks for Kids Under 5 Right Now: What Parents Should Know","datePublished":"2022-04-25T16:28:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:10:07.073Z","description":"What parents need to know about COVID-19 risks for kids too young to get vaccinated, and how to keep them safe.","url":"https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt559c0717e07d3525/698a314286f68e72bc6f12a4/Pre-school-COVID-19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt559c0717e07d3525/698a314286f68e72bc6f12a4/Pre-school-COVID-19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mother and child with a COVID-19 mask","caption":"Mother and child with a COVID-19 mask","creditText":"Catherine McQueen","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/","name":"COVID-19 Risks for Kids Under 5 Right Now: What Parents Should Know"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Miracle Workers: The Scientists Behind The COVID-19 Vaccine","description":"For those of us lucky enough to live in wealthy countries with access to these top-shelf vaccines, it has made all the difference. 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