Confusion over kids’ role in coronavirus transmission

Are children less susceptible to COVID-19? And are they less likely to transmit the infection to others, especially adults? That short answer, it seems, is that they probably can.

In the past week there have been two seemingly credible research reports that contradicted each other on the topic. This then prompted the World Health Organisation to weigh in with a statement warning the public to be cautious, as there is still much that remains unknown about the virus.

A researcher involved in the study, which was widely reported to have concluded that no child is known to have infected an adult, subsequently released his own statement. In it, he said the conclusions had been misunderstood and that children can indeed pass the virus to adults.

UK study analysed 78 studies from around the world

The first study by paediatric blog Don’t Forget The Bubbles, in partnership with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK, looked at 78 studies from around the world, mostly from China where the disease originated.

This study was reported to have found that it is likely children “do not play a significant role” in transmitting the coronavirus and are significantly less likely to become infected than adults.

Around the same time, the Swiss government said grandparents are now allowed to hug their grandchildren because it had concluded that young children do not transmit the virus. The Swiss authorities would be reopening the country’s public schools on 11May.

Authors of the report say conclusions were misinterpreted

Business Insider then reported that Alisdair Munro, one of the researchers who authored the review, had made his own statement on social media.

“Children almost certainly DO transmit COVID-19,” Munro said. He added: “Growing evidence suggests children are less susceptible to infection, have milder infection, and are infrequently responsible for household transmission.”

His position was supported by The Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, which said in its own tweet: “a number of media reports, citing RCPCH, have incorrectly suggested that children cannot transmit COVID-19. This is not the RCPCH position, nor is it based on evidence.”

Children can carry the same virus levels as adults

Then German virologist Christian Drosten, director of the Institute of Virology at Berlin’s Charite hospital, said authorities should be cautious when looking at studies examining the effects of COVID-19 on children.

Drosten said that, according to his own research, children can carry as high levels of the coronavirus as adults. He and his colleagues warned against an unlimited reopening of schools and kindergartens in the present situation.

Making its own statement, the World Health Organisation said there was no reason to think that children are less susceptible to infection if they’re exposed and that they cannot transmit to others.

“We’re really not seeing [evidence of] this in the epidemiology,” said WHO technical lead Maria van Kerkhove.