Shocking ....

At least one study that looked at the amount of coronavirus in the body of COVID-19 patients, a measurement known as “viral load,” found that the volume was not related to age.

Researchers at the Institute for Virology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin said that an analysis earlier this year of nearly 4,000 positive test samples found that the very young did not differ significantly from adults in viral load, leading them to caution against unlimited reopening of schools.

But a separate analysis of that study carried out by the University of Zurich, cautioned that the findings are difficult to interpret due to the statistical methods used and the small number of cases identified in children and adolescents.

“A reanalysis of summary data with a test for trend suggests that there is moderate, but not overwhelming evidence for increasing viral load with increasing age,” wrote lead author Dr. Leonhard Held, professor of biostatistics at the University of Zurich.

As Europe and the United States start to return to work after lockdowns imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, world leaders are trying to work out when it is safe for children and students to get back to their studies.

Dr Rosalind Eggo, an infectious disease modeller at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said she had seen some indications from research that children may not spread the novel coronavirus as much as adults.

“There are hints that children are less infectious but it is not certain,” Eggo, who sits on a panel that advises the British government about transmission of COVID-19 among children and within schools, told the science committee of the House of Lords, the second chamber of Britain’s parliament.

As governments weigh the costs and benefits of lifting lockdowns, a debate over just how vulnerable children are to COVID-19 is emerging.

Switzerland's infectious diseases chief declared this week that children under the age of 10 "don't have the receptors to catch the disease," and the country is reopening its public schools on May 11.

On Thursday, the picture was further muddied by coverage of a large review of 78 available studies conducted by the UK Royal College of Paediatrics, which said: "The role of children in transmission is unclear, but it seems likely they do not play a significant role."

The first articles to cover the review said there was no evidence to date that any children had passed the virus on to adults.

But one of the researchers that authored the review in question, Alasdair Munro, insists their findings were misunderstood, and that children can indeed pass the virus to adults.

"Children almost certainly DO transmit COVID-19," Munro, a clinical research fellow in pediatric infectious diseases at University Hospital Southampton, said on Twitter on Thursday, adding: "Growing evidence suggests children are less susceptible to infection, have milder infection, and are infrequently responsible for household transmission."

The Royal College of Pediatrics also corrected the record, tweeting that "a number of media reports, citing RCPCH, have incorrectly suggested that children cannot transmit COVID-19. This is not the the RCPCH position, nor is it based on evidence."

Conclusions

The occurrence in this cluster of 1 asymptomatic case with similar viral load as a symptomatic patient suggests transmission potential of asymptomatic individuals. The fact that an infected child did not transmit the disease despite close interactions within schools suggests potential different transmission dynamics in children. Finally, the dissociation between upper and lower respiratory tract results underscores the need for close monitoring of the clinical evolution of suspected cases of coronavirus disease 2019.