TRAGIC

Georgia 5-Year-Old With No Health Problems Dies of COVID Amid Surge

Though coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths among those under 18 are rare, the toddler’s death is a grim reminder that children are still susceptible.

Wyatt Gibson, a 5-year-old in Calhoun, Georgia with no underlying health conditions, has died of COVID-19, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. His parents described him as a Lego-loving toddler who would dance through their house in cowboy boots singing, “I love donkeys and I love dogs.” Gibson’s father Wes and his baby sister have tested positive for the virus. Though the majority of the American population is vaccinated against the coronavirus, Gibson’s death is a grim reminder that children under 12, who are not eligible for inoculation, are still susceptible, though hospitalizations and deaths in his age group are exceedingly rare. Gibson is one of four Georgians under the age of 10 to die of COVID-19. Coronavirus cases in Georgia and across the country are surging as the more contagious delta variant creates what the director of the CDC called “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”