First “super-transmitters”, because the first French victim of the coronavirus was a teacher from the Oise, then almost immune and little disseminator, children continue to question scientists.
While the government does not impose the wearing of masks for those under eleven years old, doctors recommend it for primary school students in a column published on Saturday by Le Parisien.
What is the context?
This Tuesday, French high school students and schoolchildren return to school benches for a special start.
Successful objective for the Ministry of National Education, which intended to provide face-to-face lessons for all students, even in the event of strong circulation of the virus.
But faced with the resurgence of the epidemic, the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Banquer decided to make the wearing of masks compulsory for teachers and for children over eleven years old, that is to say from college.
A measure that was not included in the initial protocol.
On the other hand, the ministry is sticking to its positions concerning primary school students.
This decision is explained by the fact that "the majority of the scientific community is based on a study by Dr. Robert Cohen
(Editor's note: vice-president of the French Pediatric Society)
who affirms that children under eleven years of age are refractory to the virus, that they are outside the epidemiological circuits ”, explains to Parisian Dr. Stéphane Gayet, infectious disease specialist at Strasbourg University Hospital.
Who offers the mask for the primary?
In a forum, 22 doctors “welcome the obligation for those over 11 to wear protection, but recommend extending it to all children over 6 years old.
They are based on clusters identified in certain schools, notably in Réunion, where students resumed lessons on August 17.
"I am surprised that there is no pediatrician among the signatories," nevertheless delivers Christophe Delacourt, president of the French Pediatric Society (SFP).
For him, this forum "throws up trouble on the question of the mask", by creating a controversy that has no place.
What is the government saying?
“We consult doctors specializing in children.
This week again, the SFP, in a meeting at the Directorate General for Health, validated our positions, ”Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Sunday in an interview with the JDD.
Precisely, these specialists agree that “children and in particular those under 10 years old do not significantly contribute to the transmission of Covid-19”, according to a press release from the French Pediatric Society.
The pediatricians on whom the government relies are based on a dozen studies devoted to the transmission of the virus by children.
They cite in particular an Irish work published in Eurosurveillance, carried out in certain schools of the country before their closings, which did not identify any secondary case among 1001 children having been in contact with three infected pupils.
"The transmissions are more between college and high school students", abounds Christophe Delacourt.
However, France Info revealed Sunday that two schools in Réunion were preparing to close their doors because of two positive children in kindergarten and three in elementary.
And abroad ?
According to the column of the collective of doctors that we published, the mask is worn from kindergarten in Chinese and South Korean schools and is compulsory from six years old "in Italy and in some German Länder".
But overall, imposing the mask on children under the age of 11 is not the norm, especially in Europe.
"German pediatricians have positioned themselves like us, that is to say, they find it pointless to impose it on students under the age of eleven, except in the event of the second wave of the epidemic", notes for his part , Christophe Delacourt.
In fact, the mask is not compulsory in class in most parts of Germany or in Great Britain and Italy only requires it on children if a distance of one meter cannot be observed.
On the other hand, children from Spain and Greece will have to wear protection in class from the age of six.
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Finally, the World Health Organization recommends it from the age of twelve but it can be considered between 6 and 11 years old, provided that a series of factors such as the level of transmission of the virus in the area where the patient resides is taken into account. child's ability to use a mask correctly.