Since last spring, the formula has changed but the idea remains the same.
In an attempt to reassure teachers and parents, some of whom are still hesitant to send their children to school, the Minister of National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, said this Tuesday morning on Europe 1 that "the risk of contamination Of the children was "stronger outside of school."
Brandishing the strict health protocol in schools, he claims a rate of 0.3% of students sick with Covid.
In May, the same minister was already repeating, to always reassure, "that there (were) more risks to stay at home than to go to school".
A reflection that had made a strong reaction as the country came out of two months of confinement with children in lessons remotely.
But what do science and its actors really say?
Doctors are rather divided on the role of children and their education in the spread of the Covid.
"Scientifically impossible" for an epidemiologist
Rather reserved when it comes to giving his opinion on members of the government, Dominique Costagliola, epidemiologist at Inserm has always been critical of the minister's assertions in this regard.
"It is silly to say that there is no contagion in schools", she recently blurted out in our columns.
An analysis confirmed by Mahmoud Zureik, professor of public health and epidemiology at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
“These numbers are wrong and the situation is much more complicated.
These words of the Minister are exaggerated, he deplores from the outset.
Do you think that putting 30 people, five days a week, for eight hours in the same room does not generate contamination?
Not to mention that there are hundreds to eat every noon in a canteen, without a mask… It is scientifically impossible that there is no virus circulation.
"
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In a study published a few days ago by the Institut Pasteur, dubbed ComCor, the researchers established that "meals play a central role in contamination".
The same work also shows that family homes made up of school children are more likely to be affected by the coronavirus.
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One thing is certain, almost no study has been interested in the transmission of Covid in children in France.
If the Pasteur Institute did a good job, in the spring, on what was one of the first clusters in France, in Crépy-en-Valois (Oise), this analysis is confined to a small sample.
Since then, the health context has also changed a lot.
This study in the Oise seems to confirm the words of Minister Blanquer since it appears that parents are the sources of contamination of children.
“It's true that children under 10 are less contagious than adults.
However, this is not the case for children and adolescents over the age of 10, admits Mahmoud Zureik.
However, children are much more asymptomatic and, fortunately, less prone to severe forms.
They are then not detected as the source of the infection.
"
What do the numbers say?
The share of children in hospitalizations and intensive care units has never exceeded 1% and 2%.
On the other hand, the positivity rate of children aged 0 to 10 is, on average, higher during the school period (6.6%) than during school holidays (4%), when they see their classmates less. class.
The positivity figures of the tests, to be handled with care for children, do not particularly prove Jean-Michel Blanquer./LP Infographie
These figures should however be read with caution since the two summer months of school holidays also correspond to a moment of calm on the front of the epidemic in France.
"Not to mention that the test figures are sometimes difficult to interpret depending on the period and that children were tested much less at the start of the crisis and during the summer", also tempers Mahmoud Zureik.
As for the 0.3% of students with Covid which Jean-Michel Blanquer welcomes, it certainly remains incomplete.
This emanates from statements from parents relayed by school officials.
"We should test more in schools, high schools, colleges to know the true level of the circulation of the coronavirus in these establishments", concludes the epidemiologist.
One data, however, goes well in the direction of the minister: during the second confinement, the opening of schools has probably not prevented the number of cases detected daily from falling.
According to figures from the Ministry of National Education, for the last school week of the year, before the end of year holidays, 25 of the 50,100 schools in France were closed for cases of SARS-CoV-2 .