Children are infected FROM adults, rather than vice versa...

[Pebbles574]

Was reading some WHO data and this paragraph jumped out at me:

Children are important drivers of influenza virus transmission in the community. For COVID-19 virus, initial data indicates that children are less affected than adults and that clinical attack rates in the 0-19 age group are low. Further preliminary data from household transmission studies in China suggest that children are infected from adults, rather than vice versa.

Source: www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200306-sitrep-46-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=96b04adf_2

If this is true, then it makes the case for keeping the schools open!

Anyone heard this from any other valid source? This WHO report is 10 days old.

Highly supportive of schools staying open anyway.

Do not in any way trust every parent to keep their child behind lock doors for weeks. Much better to at least know they’re all going to the same place and mixing with the same people each day.

@Pebbles574 I have a friend who is an epidemiologist and a cardio-pulmonary consultant. He was sharing this data/ research a while back. I do believe that it is from a reputable source. The WHO is pretty reputable by itself and at present nobody else has access to the same body of data so you won't really see anyone else being able to analyse to the same level.

You are right though, I believe it was one of the main reasons why Britain didn't follow the school closure suit of other countries in the first place.

The reason for this in China was that the children were all locked in, and only the adults were leaving the house. When they analysed by age group on the Diamond Princess, there was very little variance between age categories in transmission profiles.

Children didn’t leave the house in Wuhan - only adults did. The situation would be very different in a country where children aren’t locked in at home.

The WHO data isn’t only looking at China though. It’s looking at all the cases world wide. There is statistical evidence that children are less likely to catch and transmit this virus. As I said though the WHO are the only people with access to this full data set so we will have to wait for further analysis.

Dr Tedros said in todays WHO briefing that Young people are at risk and children have died.
It has been quickly ignored by the press.

Just after 12 mins in

Young people are at risk, because their immune systems are not as fully developed. But that doesn’t change the original comment which is about the role that children appear to be playing, or rather aren't playing in the carrying and transmission of covid-19. All the data so far suggests that rather than children being key carriers and a critical agent in the spread of the disease, as is the case for influenza and other related viruses, with covid-19 they appear to be very much not carrying or passing on the disease.

This DOESNT mean that children aren’t at risk, are immune or otherwise can’t catch it. What it means is that it appears that children catch it from adults rather than vice-versa. I.e. rather than children being a threat to one another, and schools being a hotbed for the spread of the disease as children mingle and bring it home to the family, it appears that we adults are in fact the primary carriers and it is us who will infect the children.

That's really interesting and I hope further research continues to support it. It certainly does make a case for keeping schools open.

That's really interesting