Well-known experts, advisers to the British government said on Tuesday that there are indications that children do not transmit the coronavirus to the extent that adults do, but also warned that human immunity to this new disease may not last long.
Rosalind Ego of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told the House of Lords science committee on Tuesday that there is evidence that children do not transmit the new coronavirus to the extent that adults do.
"There are indications that children are less contagious than adults, but this is not certain," said Ego, who sits on a committee advising the British government on the transmission of Covid-19 among children and within schools.
Ego said that for children who do not show signs of infection, it is very difficult to tell how contagious they are, but that evidence has begun to appear that there is a lower possibility of infection than them, reports Hina.
"We need more studies to really conclude that," she noted.
"The children will not have serious consequences"
Ego said her research has shown that there is a much lower level of symptomatic infection in people under 20 - about 20 percent of infections that show clinical symptoms.
"We think that children are less likely to get sick, but that is not certain. But we are very sure that children will most likely not have serious consequences," she said.
John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told the House of Lords science committee that children do not appear to play a major role in the spread of the coronavirus, while they play a central role for most respiratory viruses and bacteria.
He also said that there is no clear evidence of transmission of the virus by asymptomatic persons - which may be around 30 or 40 percent among adults.
Edmunds also warned of the potentially bad news that human immunity to the new coronavirus will not last long.
"Antibody responses decline over time in SARS survivors, so after a few years their antibodies have decreased significantly," Edmunds said, referring to severe acute respiratory syndrome, which is also caused by a type of coronavirus.
"We can also see from other types of coronaviruses - those that cause coughs and colds - that individuals do not have particularly long-term immunity to many of these viruses, so they get re-infected later," said Edmunds.
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