How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting the kids? Tamera Mowry and her husband, Adam Housley, are ready to ask their children! Aden and Ariah Housley recently spoke with health expert Andy Slavitt about COVID-19.
“Why is it called the coronavirus,” Aden asked Slavitt. “A Corona means crown,” Slavitt explained. “If you think about a crown, what does it look like,” the health expert said. “It’s got kind of a bunch of points on the top. If you took a big microscope, and you put the coronavirus under the microscope, it would look exactly like that. It has a whole bunch of crowns. So they just called it the coronavirus because it looks like it has a crown on it.”
Ariah went on to ask Mr. Slavitt a question that many people have pondered. “Why do you [have to] wash your hands so much,” the 4-year-old posed.
According to Slavitt, “If you wash your hands a lot, that makes it much harder for the virus to spread. If you wash your hands, you should do it for about twenty seconds. So sing a little bit of a song. Then, Walla! If you’ve touched something, and you wash your hands, you don’t have to worry about getting or spreading the virus as much. So it’s good to wash your hands a lot.”
The coronavirus continues to impact every aspect of life, which includes playtime. The inability to play with his friends prompted Aden to ask Andy Slavitt why there is a need for social distancing.
“The problem is, when something like a virus is going around and it spreads, it doesn’t necessarily make kids sick,” Slavitt explained to 7-year-old Aden. “In fact, kids usually don’t get sick from coronavirus. But sometimes what happens is one kid will play with another kid, and then maybe that kid goes to see his grandmother or his grandfather. And then they could pass the virus on to their grandmother or grandfather.”
Slavitt went on to tell Aden, “We want to make sure that doesn’t happen. So the grownups are going to try to make sure we’re being as safe as possible. When the virus is not so easy to catch, then you’ll be able to go outside and play with your friends again.”
BCK Asks: What questions have your kids asked during the coronavirus pandemic?
Photo: Tamera Mowry/Instagram
