Ever since the beginning of the Wuhan virus panic, there has been an extensive debate about the degree to which children can catch or transmit Wuhan. This is actually one of the more critical questions that needs to be answered. While everyone agrees that children, at least those without some underlying health challenge, are largely asymptomatic, that is the end of the agreement. If children are not carriers, then closing schools and daycare centers is, like with so much else we’ve done to ourselves, bonkers. Kids who can’t transmit stop being a potential vector for bringing the infection to more vulnerable members of the population. Also, if schools and daycare can reopen safely, the quicker we can get the country back to something resembling a functioning nation and not merely a capstone project for a bunch of academics and government employees who seem incapable of understanding the harm they are doing to real people. BUT. If children can transmit the disease and they are virtually always asymptomatic, then schools must be looked upon as one of the more critical focal points to monitor.
Early on, the Swiss cast their lot with the “kids don’t transmit” position (see Switzerland Consults Actual Science and Decides to Reopen Its Schools). It’s results, to date, seem to support the decision. It ranks below the US and UK in cases. On the other side, there was a study published by a prominent German virologist named Christian Drosten in late April that claimed that children were merely asymptomatic carriers:-- More...
