Stockholm university

Calling children ‘vectors’ during COVID-19 is turning into discrimination

Children have been widely referred to as “vectors” of COVID-19, writes Rebecca Adami and Katy Dineen in a new article in The Conversation.

Photo from The Conversation: fizkes/Shutterstock

The article is published in The Conversation on November 18, 2021, and written by Rebecca Adami, Associate Professor in Education, Stockholm University, and Katy Dineen, Assistant Lecturer in Moral Responsibility and Political Theory, University College Cork.

They write:

“While we still do not know the long-term effects of COVID-19 on children, research from early in the pandemic suggested that children were much less likely than adults to suffer severely with the symptoms of the virus. Discussions of children revolved around their role in transmitting the disease to adults. Soon, children were being referred to as ‘vectors’ of the disease.

This phrase has been used to control the movement of children. Shops in Ireland referred to children as ‘vectors of disease’ as a justification for limiting their entry to stores. ‘Children are vectors not victims,’ a paediatrician commented when advising adults to limit contact between children.”

Read the article in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/calling-children-vectors-during-covid-19-is-turning-into-discrimination-171041

Read more about the collaboration between Stockholm University and The Conversation and how to pitch an article idea:
https://www.su.se/staff/services/information-communication/pitch-an-article-idea-for-the-conversation-1.462268

More articles in The Conversation by researchers at Stockholm University: https://theconversation.com/institutions/stockholm-university-1019

On this page