Virginia to study presence of coronavirus antibodies in N.Va. children

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Fri, 2020-08-14 11:22 — mike kraft

Virginia to study presence of coronavirus antibodies in N.Va. children In the District, masks are at the center of a suit filed under the city’s Whistleblower Protection Act. Justin Wm. Moyer, Dana Hedgpeth, Rebecca Tan Washington Post

Virginia health officials announced Thursday that they are conducting a study of coronavirus antibodies in children in the state’s D.C. suburbs after a similar one that focused on the prevalence of antibodies in adults.

The study will look at as many as 1,000 people younger than 20 who are receiving care at participating clinical sites. It is being conducted with Inova Health System and will determine the proportion of children and teens with the antibodies.

Scientists have tested people’s blood to see whether they may have antibodies that provide immunity to the novel coronavirus, but there is uncertainty as to how long that immunity lasts or whether people may just experience less severe symptoms.

A July study that included Virginia adults found that about 2.4 percent of residents in the state have coronavirus antibodies. That number jumped to 4.2 percent of residents in Northern Virginia.

Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a pediatric neurologist, said in a statement that children are “impacted by the disease in a different way than adults.” He added that the study will provide insight into how the virus spreads among different ages and demographic groups.

Northern Virginia was selected because of its number of pediatric covid-19 cases and because of the region’s socioeconomic and racial diversity, officials said. The data will also be used to determine how many children have been infected with the virus who might have had mild or asymptomatic infections....

In the District, masks used to protect against coronavirus transmission are at the center of a lawsuit filed recently under the city’s Whistleblower Protection Act.

A former high-ranking D.C. Housing Authority employee is suing the agency, saying she was illegally fired after discovering that it bought Chinese-made KN95 masks that were not approved by the Food and Drug Administration through a friend of the agency’s executive director.

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