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Back to school: wearing a mask from 6 years old is debated

CORONAVIRUS – With less than 48 hours before the start of the school year, concerns continue to grow amid an upsurge in the new coronavirus. The mask will be compulsory for all students from 11 years old, including during recess, but some want to go further. In a column published this Saturday, August 29 in The Parisian, scientists and doctors are pleading to make the mask compulsory from 6 years old.

Believing that the protocol presented by Jean-Michel Blanquer is insufficient and does not sufficiently protect children as parents and teachers, they write that “children under 11 are as contaminating as adolescents or adults”. They take Spain and Italy for example.

Interviewed in the JDD this Sunday, August 30, the Ministry of Education responded by reminding them that in France the health recommendations are directly inspired by the opinions of the High Council for Public Health. “We also consult doctors specializing in children. This week again, the French pediatric society, in a meeting at the Directorate General of Health, validated our positions. Wearing a mask from the age of 12 is a WHO recommendation and this is what many countries follow, ”he said.

The mask from 3 years old?

The position of the World Health Organization is in reality not so clear cut. Even under 12 years old, the WHO invites you to think about wearing a mask. According to her, it can be considered between 6 and 11 years old, provided that a series of factors are taken into account (the level of transmission of the virus in the area where the child resides, his ability to use a mask correctly, etc.).

Some specialists go even further and demand the wearing of a mask from 3 years in a closed environment. “Reducing the risk in young children means preserving their education as much as possible and protecting their parents and grandparents,” tweeted epidemiologist Antoine Flahault.

Others, including pediatricians, object that a child so young is not able to wear a mask for a long time.

Beyond the mask, the pandemic raises the question of hygiene in schools, to limit the risks of transmission. However, before the arrival of Covid-19, around 43% of schools in the world “did not have basic hand washing facilities”, according to the WHO and Unicef.

The contagiousness of children

She’s the big fat stranger. Some studies have concluded that children have a viral load (i.e., concentration of virus) comparable to that of adults, and are therefore potentially just as contagious.

But the viral load is not the only criterion: children may be less contagious because they have fewer symptoms, since it is by coughing or sneezing that an infected person risks transmitting the virus.

“When they show symptoms, children shed the same amount of virus as adults and are just as contaminating as they are. It is not known to what extent asymptomatic children can infect other people ”, summarizes the ECDC. However, studies have shown that children, especially younger ones, rarely infect loved ones.

Leaving from a chalet in Haute-Savoie this winter, one of the first homes in France included a 9-year-old child. However, the latter did not infect anyone, although he had been in contact with 172 individuals, including 112 students and teachers.

Another French study carried out at Crepy-en-Valois, a town very affected by the epidemic in February-March, concludes that children aged 6 to 11 transmit Covid-19 little at school, whether to other students or to adults. According to these studies, contamination is more from adults to children than the reverse. In this regard, there is also no consensus on the fact that children are less infected. Several studies suggest that the virus seems to infect children less, especially under 10 years old.

Representative samples of the population were tested in Iceland, Spain, Geneva or in the village of Vo in Italy, to determine the rate of people infected or having developed antibodies: children were proportionally less affected than adults.

“These differences are small and remain to be confirmed,” warns the ECDC, however, which calls for “targeted studies to better understand the dynamics of infection and antibody production” in children.

See also on The HuffPost: Wearing a mask will become mandatory throughout Paris, Castex announces

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