[quote JanuaryChill]Here's a summary of the state of research in October, inc links to lots of research. NB when it talks about countries with few school outbreaks they all wear masks in classrooms, unlike most British schools:
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02973-3[/quote]
Two quotes from that article:
But “we don’t actually understand the natural history of transmission in children, because we mitigate against it”, says paediatrician Fiona Russell at the University of Melbourne, Australia, who was involved in the Victoria school-outbreaks study. Children aren’t in a typical school environment — instead, they’re social distancing, wearing masks and following other precautions.
Which isn't the case in UK schools.
Another possibility is that children tend to transmit less virus because they are more commonly asymptomatic. In a UK study of 2–15-year-olds, up to 50% of infected children developed no symptoms
That would also mean that up to 50% of infected children won't get a positive test, meaning that we're missing more cases in those ages (and presumably more at the younger end) which will bring the numbers down.
Plus the article is from October which is well before the new variant began to show.