Covid-19, children and reopening schools

From the beginning of the outbreak, experts are claiming that children are less likely to show symptoms or be affected by the coronavirus.

However, depending on the children's age, the virus seems to act differently.

According to recent studies, children below the age of 10 tend to show fewer symptoms or no symptoms at all.

On the contrary, teenagers and children over the age of 10 show more signs, and the number of positive cases among them is also higher.

In April 2020, French Epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet and his colleagues from the Pasteur Institute in Paris surveyed the city Crépy-en-Valois and noticed an intriguing outcome.

They found that the virus had spread wildly through secondary schools, infecting 38 percent of the students, 43 percent of the teachers and 59 percent of the non-teaching staff.

The scenario was not the same in the six primary schools.

At the beginning of February, three primary-age students were tested Covid-19 positive, but none of these infections had resulted in a secondary case.

Overall, only nine percent of the students, seven percent of the teachers and four percent of non-teaching staff were contaminated.

Based on Fontanet's survey, teenagers and older children are as contagious as adults.

But children below 10 are less likely to transmit the virus.

Similar findings have been found in South Korea.

Another study by Epidemiologist Max Lau in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Public Health found only a few positive cases among children even after the state loosened its lockdown. They also did not find any proof of transmission from children.

A recent study by Public Health England (PHE), however, found that children even under 16 have accounted for just over 1 percent of all cases of coronavirus during the first wave of illness in England.

However, most of the studies found a significant rise among 15 to 25-year-olds, which suggests that they may be more likely to spread the virus.

The question is, why are younger children less affected and contagious compared to older children and adults?

Experts have explained a few possible reasons behind such a pattern.

Some have theorised that younger children have a lower viral load or maybe they exhale less air than teenagers and adults.

These reduce their chances of transmitting the virus.

Another theory is that as children show fewer symptoms or no symptoms such as having a cold or cough, they cannot release the virus as much as adults or teenagers.

Some experts think children have fewer risks, ironically because of their less developed immune systems.

A significant number of fatalities in grown-ups happened because of a severe immune reaction known as cytokine storm.

Some groups of experts believe that social practices rather than biology can decode the mystery behind higher risks among youths and adults.

"There has been a lot of attention to the fact that people who are older have a worse course and if you are young, it does not feel as dangerous, so they might think, 'why be as careful?'," said Assistant Professor of cardiology and preventive medicine Sadiya S Khan to The Washington Post.

Lower risks among children made many countries reopen their schools.

But when new cases were reported, they had to shut down again.

Like any new disease outbreak, research will take time in this pandemic.

Without getting a picture of the whole scenario, reopening schools may result in another disaster.

We are yet to have any detailed and assuring research on it.

The studies that are mentioned above do not provide a comprehensive picture either.

Yes, younger children pose fewer risks, they also transmit less, but what happened to their family members when the affected students went home? Had they reported positive also?

The risk of spreading still lingered there, if the children did in fact contaminate them.

The question then arises, should countries consider reopening schools?

In the UK, USA or other western countries, most guardians, teachers, and medical experts are against school reopening.

If the governments insist on reopening, experts suggest rearranging classes with only 15 to 20 students in a classroom while maintaining all medical guidelines.

But can we reopen our educational institutions?

Many rumours have been hovering around the HSC exams or schools reopening, out of our frustration and fear for children's future.

We ought to remember that on average, there are 80-100 students in a Bangladeshi classroom.

Maintaining social distancing would be difficult unless we choose a handful of students to attend classes and ignore the rest. This may create divisions.  

Also, ensuring hand sanitisers and masks for everyone would be difficult, considering the high number of students that our schools usually have.  

These indeed put us in a difficult position, but for the sake of our future, we should think thoroughly before making any decision such as reopening schools.

Maybe keeping our children out of any public gathering is the best thing to do for the time being.

Infected children might infect their families and those families might keep spreading the virus.

In that case, curbing the cases would be nearly impossible.

We have to ensure that we look before we leap, instead of dealing with the same thing repeatedly.