Thread by dgurdasani1 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App
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Transmissibility studies look at how often children get infected when exposed to an ’index case’.
Most studies looking at both of these use symptom-based testing to determine case status. This is flawed - because children are often asymptomatic & infect adults silently.
This means contacts of children are often wrongly identified as the index case as initial testing is based on symptoms. If contacts are then tested, it’s possible the child would then be considered as a secondary infection, or not infected at all (if swab -ve by this point)
The second issue is that many of earlier studies on infection were carried out during lockdowns & periods where schools were either closed or attendance was much lower. This will have a huge impact on inferences, as infection in children depends on susceptibiliy & exposure