Children and the Delta variant --what parents should know

What parents need to know about children and the Delta variant

The Delta variant of Covid-19 is more contagious than other lineages, and is spreading rapidly in under-vaccinated populations.

While vaccination is a matter of choice for adults, many children – particularly those under the age of 12 – cannot get vaccinated at all.

That leaves a lot of uncertainty, especially for parents and caregivers considering summer camps and school.

So, should parents be wearing masks around their children? Where should children be wearing masks? The answer may depend on where people live. What are the current vaccination rates and how prominent are new variants in your area?

That calculation might also involve the individual risk of a child and their family, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN last week.

"I think it's very reasonable for parents who are living with kids who are unvaccinated – or for that matter, other family members who are unvaccinated – to consider wearing a mask if they're in a high-risk area or if their job requires a high degree of exposure," Murthy said.

Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases, said that vaccinating adults might better protect children, even if the virus is more transmissible.

"It is important for parents and other eligible close family members to be fully vaccinated around children less than 12 years of age to protect them as much as possible against infection with the Delta variant," Maldonado told CNN in an email.

Unvaccinated people do more than merely risk their own health. They're also a risk to everyone if they become infected with coronavirus, infectious disease specialists say. That's because the only source of new coronavirus variants is the body of an infected person.

"Unvaccinated people are potential variant factories," Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN.