Hacker News Reader

If I read correctly the they're saying they found that children have higher viral loads in their respiratory tracts. They are then making a very logical leap to assuming that this means children will more easily spread the virus. Is it possible that this assumption could be wrong? Are there no studies on the actual transmission rates from children to others vs that from adults?

View on HN

> If I read correctly the they're saying they found that children have higher viral loads in their respiratory tracts

As I wrote elsewhere in the comments, the researchers have equated the quantity of viral RNA with viral load. Studies in adults have shown that this is not always the case. There's no guarantee that there is active virus there (unless you try to infect cells with what you got from the swab).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com