We're starting to see some research on paediatric transmission of Covid-19; I read the following with some interest:
It's looking
encouraging at the moment, but there's still not certainty:
The importance of children in transmitting the virus is difficult to establish, in particular given the number of asymptomatic cases, but there is some evidence that their role in transmitting the virus is fairly limited. Precise details regarding paediatric transmission cannot be confirmed without widespread sero surveillance, but trends are emerging.
This is a rapidly developing area and current published finding may be out of date. We will update this as soon as further information becomes available.
Whether children are spreaders or not remains "one of the many unknowns with the current coronavirus outbreak", says Prof Matthew Snape from the University of Oxford. He is beginning research into how many children and teenagers have been infected and developed immunity.
"Understanding this is vital to understanding how to manage the outbreak response, including decisions about when to re-open schools," he says.
If further research continues to indicate that child->adult transmission is very unlikely then I'd personally be more supportive of schools reopening, since this was one of the main concerns I had which influenced my own opinion.. particularly since a lot of parents and school staff are likely to be vulnerable to the more severe symptoms of Covid-19 than the children.
The other concern is around the risk of complications in children that are starting to be discovered now, including reports of a
Kawasaki-like disease (PIMS-TS):
The recognition of this disease late in the first pandemic wave might relate to its rarity and the difficulty of recognising uncommon syndromes in fragmented health-care systems rapidly reorganising to deal with a pandemic. Alternatively, it suggests that the mechanism for the Kawasaki-like disease described here and PIMS-TS might represent post-infectious inflammatory syndrome, which might be antibody or immune-complex mediated, particularly because in this Italian cohort there was little evidence of viral replication
You can see from the quote that we don't yet know whether this is something that's just rare, or something that can crop up
after the patients have effectively fought off the virus. It's dangerous, because it can cause heart issues if untreated/unresponsive to treatment. I'm hopeful that it will be the former - a complication that only happens in a tiny minority of cases, and not something worth worrying over compared to the other potential problems with keeping schools closed, but the view is that we should try and explore further to confirm this.
There's active work being done here to investigate this, but science takes time:
In the UK, a British Paediatric Surveillance Unit study has been rapidly opened to explore the extent of PIMS-TS nationally. Two COVID-19 priority studies in the UK (DIAMONDS [Central Portfolio Management System 45537] and ISARIC [UK Clinical Research Network 14152]) are collaborating to ensure that every child with this emerging syndrome has the opportunity to consent to take part in a study exploring mechanisms
I agree with
@yorkie that it's crucially important to try and keep perspective on the actual risks of the virus and weigh up the other, very valid concerns associated with keeping schools closed. I think mental health is going to have suffered throughout the population throughout this period, and there will be long-lasting effects for everyone in the education system.