'Game-changing' COVID-19 variant spreading fast among children, experts say FacebookTwitterEmail Children are not immune to COVID-19, experts are now reiterating. Dr. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy was previously in favor of sending children back to school, claiming they didn't have to worry as much about the virus, per KTRK-13. But a new variant identified in the United Kingdom has Osterholm switching courses, and he's not the only infectious disease expert who is concerned. "We have to think about the B.1.1.7 variant as almost a brand new virus," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, per CBS46's Christina Maxouris. "It's acting differently from anything we've seen before, in terms of transmissibility, in terms of affecting young people, so we have to take this very seriously."