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Bullard et al. in the Journal suggest that the role of pediatric age groups in SARS-CoV-2 transmission has been unclear and that their study finds that children are not the main vectors for spread.(1) Whereas it may be true that pediatric age groups have not been the main foci for COVID-19, the simple finding of lesser live virus quantitations in respiratory specimens does not sufficiently provide evidence of the latter. Undoubtedly most feel compelled to mitigate the role of children in SARS-CoV-2 transmission as there has been an inherent belief that closure of schools has considerable risk for societal disruption and harm to the young individual. Being partial to the attempts to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on our youth is a worthy position, but the reality of common respiratory virus transmission has been firmly understood including that of endemic respiratory coronaviruses otherwise.
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Elsewhere in the world, school re-openings have been linked to resurgences.(1) Even in Canada, there are ample citations near weekly where some schools have been considerably impacted. School transmission is inevitably linked to teacher risk and to other associated family risk.(2) Whereas the younger school ages may be less implicated, there is a probable age-dependent stratification by which those in high schools eventually have risk that is similar to adult populations elsewhere.(3) Apart from practical experience with these risks and consequences, modelling studies also give...Competing Interests: None declared.References
- 1. Cassini L, Roccetti M. Reopening Italy’s schools in September 2020: a Bayesian estimation of the change in the growth rate of new SARS-CoV-2 cases. medRxiv Apr 6. doi: 10.1101/2021.04.08.21254993
- 2. Vlachos J, Hertegãrd E, Svaleryd HB. The effects of school closures on SARS-CoV-2 among parents and teachers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2021;118(9):e2020834118.
- 3. Gras-Le-Guen C, Cohen R, Rozenberg J, Launay E, Levy-Bruhl D, Delacourt C. Reopening schools in the context of increasing COVID-19 community transmission: the French experience. Arch Pediatr 2021;28(3):178-185.
- 4. Munday JD, Sherratt K, Meakin S, et al. Implications of the school-household network structure on SARS-CoV-2 transmission under school reopening strategies in England. Nat Commun 2021;12(1):1942.
- 5. Zimmerman FJ, Anderson NW. Association of the timing of school closings and behavioural changes with the evolution of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic in the US. JAMA Pediatr 2021 Feb 22;e206371. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.6371