Coronavirus: School closings make sense?

Florian Tiefenböck studied human medicine at the LMU Munich. In March 2014, he joined as a student and has supported the editorial team with medical articles ever since. After receiving his medical license and practical work in internal medicine at the University Hospital Augsburg, he has been a permanent member of the team since December 2019 and, among other things, ensures the medical quality of the tools.

More posts by Florian Tiefenböck All content is checked by medical journalists.

The discussions about the extent to which school closings are a sensible measure against the spread of Sars-CoV-2 continue. Experts disagree.

(ft / dpa) - Experts assess school closings as a measure against the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus differently. The Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL), for example, believes that closed schools can certainly help to contain it.

Although children fell ill with noticeable symptoms much less often, according to the current state of knowledge, they were just as easily infected with the Covid-19 pathogen. "The question that remains open at the moment is whether children can transmit the virus to other people as effectively as adults."

The spokesman for the board of directors of the German Society for Hospital Hygiene (DGKH), Peter Walger, does not consider school closings to be sensible. The problems that would arise from the necessary childcare alone are not in proportion to the benefits, said the infectiologist.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced that initial evaluations for the novel coronavirus showed that children are less affected than adults. According to the WHO, preliminary data also suggest that children are mainly infected with adults - but, conversely, hardly with children.

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