My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Covid

Do kids transmit covid?

66 replies

MadameGazelleIsMyHomegirl · 13/05/2020 12:46

Does anyone know of cases where kids have transmitted covid to adults or other kids? With schools reopening next month I’d like to know if anyone thinks their DC have passed the virus on to them, or if their DC caught it at school / nursery. Just interested if anecdotal experience supports what the govt are saying about kids not transmitting...

OP posts:
Report
DahliaDay · 13/05/2020 12:47

We are told not

We will find out the hard way I guess

Report
RoseyOldCrow · 13/05/2020 13:01

It seems illogical that they wouldn't, if they have the virus within their body.

Report
CurlyEndive · 13/05/2020 13:06

Some research shows they don't get or transmit the virus because they don't have ACE receptors.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52470838

Report
Camomila · 13/05/2020 13:25

My anecdotal experience is that my 4 (then 3) year old got a cough and a temperature at the beginning of March, and a week later (without leaving the house) I got the full spectrum of symptoms (cough, temperature, shortness if breath, chest pains)

Report
majesticallyawkward · 13/05/2020 13:33

I think I read the latest research showed children can have/carry and shed the virus but at the same rate as as adults. As in you are no more likely to catch it from a child than an adult but most children have very mild symptoms if any.

As long as children are practising hygiene and social distancing where possible they pose no higher risk than an adult in the same position.

Report
noego · 13/05/2020 15:48

I heard the CMO say this on Sunday at the 7.00 pm briefing that children cannot get covid 19 or more precisely he said highly unlikely yet 95 kids in New York have contracted a respiratory infection that could be linked to covid 19.
These cases are being investigated bt a team of 7 clinicians and hopefully the results will be publicised soon.
I also haven't heard what happened to the similar cases reported in the UK about a month or so ago.

Report
MadameGazelleIsMyHomegirl · 13/05/2020 22:06

Thanks for your interesting replies and experiences. It does feel a bit nuts that kids will be back in school when their ability to pass it on or catch it just hasn’t really been thoroughly investigated. Of the families I know who’ve had it, most seems to have been caught by parents and passed to kids in the family rather than the other way round.

OP posts:
Report
Siriusmew · 13/05/2020 22:08

I heard the CMO say this on Sunday at the 7.00 pm briefing that children cannot get covid 19 or more precisely he said highly unlikely

He didn't say this. He said they were less likely to suffer as badly as adults.

Report
Bluntness100 · 13/05/2020 22:10

It appears the science is proving that they don’t spread it.

There is an apparant complication with kids who have kawaski disease but the link to Covid is unproven and some scare mongering in the press, it has not been fatal to any child.

Report
excitedmumtobe87 · 13/05/2020 22:19

Some think yes. Some think no. Scientists have no idea for sure yet

It’s indelibly difficult to measure. If children have no or mild symptoms they don’t have been tested so how do we know if they gave it to the adult. Or if the adult got it elsewhere from another adult.

People say hardly any kids get it then in the next breath they’re certain there are enough case studies to know one way or another.

The cso himself cagily said they might or they might not and a lot of people interpreted that the way they wanted to.

We don’t know.

Report
avroroad · 13/05/2020 22:20

Kids have died of this?

Report
excitedmumtobe87 · 13/05/2020 22:20

Incredibly not indelibly!

Report
Siriusmew · 13/05/2020 22:21
Report
excitedmumtobe87 · 13/05/2020 22:22

@Bluntness100

Children have died from Covid and the new complication

Report
mac12 · 13/05/2020 22:23

Sorry @Bluntness100 but that’s not correct. The syndrome, now called PIMS-TS, has similarities to Kawasaki disease. If you read the Lancet study of some of the cases, most had no co-morbodities. Now more than 100 cases in U.K., a 14 year old has died. Cases also reported in US (over 80 in NYC) Italy, Netherlands. It appears to come on about 4 weeks after COVID19 infection, which may itself have been v mild in the child but which then causes this inflammatory disorder which has similarities with Kawasaki & toxic shock syndrome. Obviously much more research needed.

Report
Siriusmew · 13/05/2020 22:24

I pinched this from another thread.

On the 30th April, The Lancet published an article that used data from China that children under 10 both catch and pass on Covid 19 at the same rate, in fact a little bit higher than adults. Since then, other studies have shown similar outcomes.

Do kids transmit covid?
Report
ALifeDesign · 13/05/2020 22:25

One of my best friends is a children's nurse in a children's hospital. They are in the children's corona ward. Children do get it.

The admission rate for children is nothing like adults however. Although I appreciate this is one hospital in one uk city.

Report
WithASpider · 13/05/2020 22:31

I believe my DS (10) caught it. He had an awful cough and a temp of 39+ for a week. He gave it to me and I had almost the full spectrum of symptoms. Thankfully fairly mildly although I'm still having mild breathing issues nearly 4 weeks later.
Dd2 (14) caught it from me, same symptoms as DS.

Report
greathat · 13/05/2020 22:42

There was a study that said they didn't. Subsequent studies have shown they do, they think at a similar rate to adults.


www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-30/children-with-coronavirus-may-be-just-as-infectious-as-adults

Report
effingterrified · 13/05/2020 22:44

Yes, at my dc's school lots of dcs caught it and spread it around.

Report
effingterrified · 13/05/2020 22:45

There's been research showing that areas where schools locked down earliest and longest have had lowest mortality rates.

Also from previous pandemics.

Of course kids catch it and spread it around. Kids don't live on their own and aren't very good at social distancing or hygiene.

Report
Janaih · 13/05/2020 22:48

I know its before it kicked off but I'm convinced my 3 year old had it in February. High temperature, constant cough but not chesty, struggling to breathe at times, wiped out for 3 weeks. Doctor said it was a viral infection. Neither me nor dh caught it.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

ChasingRainbows19 · 13/05/2020 22:52

I work in a children's ward. Very few of us have caught it. Which if they were super spreading it back in Feb/March we would have had more staff catching it and being ill. No matter how good your hand hygiene etc children love to cough or sneeze in your face. We weren't wearing masks for everyone early on.

Research is on going but I believe children May have atypical symptoms or non at all, also can show digestive symptoms not obvious to the known Covid symptoms like temp/cough. And yes the Kawasaki like post covid infection/reaction is very real. Rare but some children have been affected by it in the UK and it's been recorded elsewhere.

Report
PinkyAndTheBrian · 13/05/2020 22:56

Schools have been shut for weeks now.
If children spread it we're surely not in a position to know that for sure?

Report
LilyPond2 · 13/05/2020 23:07

fullfact.org/health/children-transmitting-coronavirus/
Found this on the website of Full Fact, a charity that fact checks statements in the media.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.