he study compares two countries that share similar societal models, including access to universal health care, but that adopted very different strategies to tackle Covid-19. Sweden avoided a proper lockdown, while Finland imposed tougher social distancing.
It’s not the first time researchers have raised questions about the merits of shutting schools during the pandemic. A French study last month found that school children don’t appear to transmit Covid-19 to peers or teachers. That investigation established that kids seemed to show fewer symptoms than adults, and to be less contagious. But the authors also said more research was needed.
Hanna Nohynek, chief physician at the infectious diseases unit of Finland’s health authority and a co-author of the Nordic research, said that “children get sick with Covid-19 much more rarely and less severely.” She also cautioned that more data is needed, and that “children’s role in the transmission needs further study.”
But for now, “it would appear that their role in transmitting Covid-19 isn’t at all as big as with other respiratory infections, such as influenza,” Nohynek said. After two months of remote learning, Finnish children returned to school in May, and national infection rates have continued to decline since then.
Previously, Coronavirus does not “as a rule” pass from children to adults.
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