Ex-CDC Director: Kids May Be Secret Coronavirus Carriers

Former CDC Director Tom Frieden said Monday that children may be secret carriers of the deadly coronavirus.

"We think it will be very difficult if not impossible to contain it," Frieden told reporters on Monday, according to the New York Post, "but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try."

Frieden headed up the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Obama administration and was New York City health commissioner under Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

"Never before have we seen a pathogen emerge and have global spread like this. That is scary," Frieden said.

He noted that some people, including children, have mild or no symptoms, and they may be secret carries of COVID-19, as the virus is officially known.

Frieden pointed to a report in The Lancet of a 10-year-old who visited China, where the outbreak began, who showed no symptoms. When his parents insisted he be tested he was diagnosed with the virus.

"The fact that children may get infected but not show symptoms poses a risk to pediatricians," he said.

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