A recent American study reveals that young children have a viral load of Covid-19 10 to 100 times higher than that of adults. Earlier, a Korean study estimated that 10-year-olds were as much vectors of the virus as adults. Results which partly take the opposite of previous studies. Analysis.
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The first study, from South Korea, published on July 16, establishes that the contagiousness of 10-year-olds would be as high as that of adults. And even if children nine and under appear to be less contagious than their elders, the risk of transmitting the virus is believed to still exist. A finding confirmed by the second study, from Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, published on July 30 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Its authors point out, however, that young children under the age of five have in their noses a viral load 10 to 100 times that of adults. In short, children under five and over 10 would be viral bombs.
“The ability of young children to spread Covid-19 may have been under-recognized given the rapid and lasting closure of schools and daycares during the pandemic,” note the American researchers.
Children, Covid bombs?
The contagiousness of children: a theme and results that are likely to hit the mark in the United States. Indeed, this scientific publication comes at a key moment, when the school districts decide on the dates of reopening of their establishments.
In France, where wearing a mask is compulsory from the age of 11 since May 11, the issue of children’s contagiousness was also debated during deconfinement. Indeed, the latter was accompanied by the reopening of schools. Announced in his speech of April 13, Emmanuel Macron had wanted a gradual reopening of classes from May 11. First on a voluntary basis, attendance became compulsory as of June 22, at the risk of parents exposing themselves to a heavy fine (article 227-17 of the Penal Code).
It is certain that relaunching the economy was conceivable only with parents without dependent children. Has this imperative determined the government’s reassuring rhetoric?
“There is no scientific recommendation which says that it is necessary to make children wear masks”, declared Olivier Véran on April 24 on France inter, responding to an 11-year-old listener not reassured at the idea of returning at school.
The Minister of Health took precautions, however, specifying not to do this “arbitrationOn the question and stressing that “scientists change their mind».
48 hours later, the Scientific Council underlined the difficulty of applying barrier gestures in these closed places, arguing however that “the risk of individual contagiousness in young children is uncertain, but appears low».
At the beginning of June, the president of the same scientific council, Jean-François Delfraissy, also pleaded for a less cumbersome health system in order to promote the return of children to school and college. “Let the people live»He said in the columns of the Sunday newspaper.
Despite everything, the doubt persists, even within the health authorities. Evidenced by this “quick synthesis“Of”current knowledge»Published in mid-May by Public Health France. “The importance of the role of children in the transmission of the virus remains poorly understood“Noted the national agency in particular.
A question that is debated … among scientists
But in June, two studies tipped the scales in the direction of optimism. A study carried out on 605 young patients under the age of 15 by the French Ambulatory Pediatric Association was the first to win. This ruled on the fact that “children seem less contaminated and less contaminatingThan adults. 10.7% of them were positive in serological tests, revealing the presence of antibodies, against 2% in PCR tests, showing the activity of the virus in them.
On the media side, the argument hit the mark. “Recent studies show that children are not dangerous for those around them: less contaminated and less contaminating between them or with adults», Declared doctor Sylvie Hubinois on Franceinfo. This pediatrician felt that “the vast majority of children can return to school safely».
«Children are little carriers, few transmitters, and when they are infected, it is almost always adults in the family who have infected them», Declared mid-May on BFM TV the author of the study, Dr. Robert Cohen, pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Créteil hospital, thus estimating that the coronavirus is a “adult disease».
A second study, conducted by Professor Arnaud Fontanet, head of the epidemiology department at the Institut Pasteur, happened the day after the resumption of classes on June 22. The latter repeated the same hypothesis: “We can imagine that it was rather the parents who infected the children», Declared the doctor to France Inter.
This prestigious foundation study found that compared to adolescents and adults, children under 10 were less contagious. The title of the accompanying press release was unequivocal: “Covid-19 in primary schools: no significant transmission of the virus between children or to teachers“. The press and public opinion were therefore reassured. Till today.
Beyond the debates that are tearing the scientific community apart, one thing is certain: many gray areas persist around SARS-CoV-2, which appeared far too recently. Already in July, another misconception fell on the virus. Contrary to what the World Health Organization (WHO) has asserted until then, the latter is indeed airborne: microparticles, and not just “small droplets“Supposed to be retained by protective respiratory masks, can transmit the new coronavirus.
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