[ad_1]
Are children contagious when it comes to corona virus? This question has not only divided the specialist world since yesterday. Daniel Koch (65) of the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) said that the children are virtually uninfected and, as a result, the virus will not be transmitted. Therefore, he described a hug between grandchildren and grandparents as not very problematic. And on May 11, compulsory schools could also reopen.
Yesterday, the German virologist Christian Drosten (48) published a study that cast doubt: children could have as many coronaviruses in their throats as adults. The investigator warned about unlimited school reopening.
Less vulnerable children
Just a day later, Drosten shares a study from the renowned journal “Science” with new findings. Accordingly, the risk of infection for children is at least lower: “We found that children ages zero to 14 are less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults ages 15 to 64,” he says in The study, which is based on data from China. In contrast, people over the age of 65 are more susceptible to infection.
Drosten tweeted the study with the comment that it was “excellent,” excellent, and an important counterpart to yesterday’s data. The study goes on to say that social distancing, as implemented in China during the outbreak, is enough to control the coronavirus.
“Children are not the drivers of the epidemic”
And Daniel Koch? He said Thursday at a press conference in Zurich that he had analyzed Drosten’s data and also discussed it with a specialist in childhood infectious diseases. “That does not question the reopening of the schools.” Children could also get the virus, that is already known. “But children are not the drivers of the epidemic.”
Koch also sees confirmation from another side. Already on Monday, when he gave his blessing to the embrace of the grandson, he justified his recommendation with several discussions with experts and new studies. One shows that especially young children have very few docking stations for the virus in the throat and throat area, says the «Tages-Anzeiger ».
Pediatricians also support the opening of the school. The Swiss Pediatric Society refers to studies from the Netherlands and Australia and gives the example of Sweden, where the number of cases among people under the age of 20 is the same as in other countries. “Although the schools never closed.”
