COVID-19 disproportionately affecting children of color, CDC study says

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Eight-year-old Aurea Soto Morales is the only child in North Carolina who has died of complications from COVID-19.

Recently, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidance said the virus is disproportionately affecting children of color.

Jennifer Soto Morales spoke to Channel 9′s Elsa Gillis about her little sister, Aurea Soto Morales. Aurea died from COVID-19 complications in June.

“I don’t know how to describe her with words, but she meant the world to me. She was basically my everything,” she said.

The recent CDC study reveals more about young people and COVID-19. Jennifer said she is not surprised by the findings. It studied COVID-19 associated deaths from mid-February through July among those under the age of 21.

“So, what this CDC study stated was, as suspected, even when you look at mortality in children, even though the cases are very few, the mortality is disproportionately higher in the African American population and the Hispanic population,” said Dr. Amina Ahmed, with Atrium Health Levine CHildren’s Hospital.

According to the study of those young people who have died, about 45% are Hispanic, 29% are Black, 4% are American Indian or Alaska Native and 14% are white.

“So it’s very hard to exactly tease out what the causes are of disproportionate representation,” Ahmed said. “Some people have spoken to the socioeconomic demographic of these populations and certainly that’s a factor in there, access to health care possibly, maybe waiting until later, but I think that there is something more going on that we just haven’t been able to identify.”

But she said while the medical community work to figure it out, everyone needs to be aware of the increased risk, and it’s all the more reason to wear a mask and social distance. To prevent more lives lost like Aurea’s.

“The best we can do is just do the basics. The more people can do the basics the faster we can go back to normal,” Jennifer said.

The CDC said symptoms of COVID-19 are milder in children compared with adults. And the study reports that .03% of COVID-19 cases in young people were deadly, but the risk is still there. The CDC said that should be monitored as school reopen.

Ahmed also said children can transmit COVID-19 to other children and adults, and said time will tell as far as the impact of schools opening and COVID-19.

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