Is it okay to go back to school?

There is a lot of confusion about the Covid-19 epidemic. This is understandable given the evolving nature of datasets and the proliferation of false information. It is important for teachers and parents to understand the risks before children return to school.

It has been demonstrated that all age groups can be infected with the virus, and the older you are, the more likely you are to have complications. Although rare, very serious illnesses and deaths can occur in children, and preconditions for children and adults can contribute to hospitalization. Studies conducted last month show that school attendance does not appear to play a major role in the Covid-19 epidemic, indicating that school establishments do not have a direct impact on community infections. ..

National Geographic Recently, it has been given exclusive access to Icelandic research that provides some degree of interpersonal communication. Reykjavik’s Department of Health and deCODE genetics scientists have monitored all citizens of the country after a possible Covid-19 infection in the spring of 2020. It turns out that children under the age of 15 are half as likely to get infected. In addition, they were half as likely to be infected with the virus as adults. Interestingly, almost all Covid-19 infections in children were from adults.

Other data suggest underlying mechanisms that may explain these findings. Although the ACE2 receptor is involved in infection and appears to be down-regulated in most children, an additional study conducted at Vanderbilt University in the United States found that enzymes that help chop up peplomer proteins in adults It was found to increase expression. This treatment is thought to aid the entry of the virus into cells, and its presence in specific cells of the lung has been correlated with Covid-19 infection. In addition to having strong innate immunity and a more diverse antibody repertoire that protects against Covid-19, children may also be protected because they lack the proteins needed to infect lung cells. ..

As data continues to accumulate, scientifically meaningful images of the differences in infectivity and illness seen across age groups are beginning to emerge. When a child becomes infected, the majority immediately eliminate the virus. Therefore, the time of infection may be shortened, the duration of infection in the cohort may be shortened, and symptoms may be limited. If you are a prepubertal child, the overall transmission between children should be low, given that a large amount of virus may be needed to infect.

Adults, on the other hand, have weak innate immunity and can be infected because the appropriate proteins are expressed in the lungs, so the amount of virus that adults need to infect from children is low. Conversely, adults are not good at removing the virus, so the infection is long, the viral load is high, and the symptoms usually worsen. Adults also have a high vital capacity and expel air farther, making them more likely to infect everyone. In addition, the older you are, the more likely you are to have an dysregulation of immune function or an existing condition. Taken together, many properties of the virus, the immune response, and physiology work together to determine infectivity and the probability of disease.

This model suggests that teachers and staff, and adults in general, should pay attention to their children, but for other unmasked adults, including colleagues during breaks and lunch. More attention is needed. Finally, it is important for researchers to carefully determine how much a child or a subset of pre-requisite children will infect each other, as it will affect those who should prioritize vaccination. Interestingly, it is now widely accepted that asymptomatic individuals contribute to the Covid-19 epidemic, suggesting that nearly 60% of all epidemics occur this way. I will. This percentage may vary depending on the probabilities outlined above. Nonetheless, asymptomatic people do not sneeze or cough, so this provides additional support that normal breathing and conversation leads to transmission along with the song, and is smaller in promoting this pandemic. Further evidence of the role of aerosols.

Microscopic aerosols can travel beyond 1.8 m, which should be carefully considered in Covid-19 infections. This is very important because it means that the closer you are to inhaling the air that someone else exhales, the more likely you are to get infected. This can also mean unsafe if you are more than 1.8 meters away, especially indoors with poor air circulation.

An elegant contact tracing experiment in South Korea could be transmitted recently on the other side of the restaurant, even if the individual was not wearing a mask and the air flow was carrying these small aerosols throughout the room. Provided proof that there is.

Therefore, hand washing is a good hygiene that should be encouraged, but it is a respiratory virus that is spread primarily by aerosols, and it seems unlikely that live viruses will enter the respiratory tract from the hands or surface. Covid-19 infections can be dramatically reduced by wearing masks that children generally don’t care about, and when teachers are vaccinated, the risk of Covid-19 spreads to students and vice versa. — Baltimore Sun / Tribunnews Service

Chris Janetopoulos is an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Science in Philadelphia.