CIAO CORONA
So far, there is little information available on how many children and adolescents have been infected with the coronavirus and how many are immune to the corona virus. We also do not know whether you can transmit the virus to others such as your friends, parents or grandparents.
Fortunately, children and teenagers rarely fall seriously ill with the coronavirus. It is likely that they are often infected without any signs of illness (symptoms). However, children and teenagers may still infect adults, who then react more strongly to the virus and become seriously ill. In order to protect ourselves and others, we all currently have to wear a mask on public transport, wash our hands regularly with soap and keep our distance wherever possible.
This is how infection with the virus happens
When someone is infected with the corona virus, the virus spreads through the nose, throat and lungs. In order to defend itself against the virus, the body produces so-called antibodies, which can be found in the blood and perhaps also in the saliva. Normally, the body produces so many antibodies that it can kill a virus. This way you are so-called "immune" and cannot get a new infection.
With the new corona virus, however, we do not yet know whether these antibodies will survive for a long time or whether they will die off again quickly. If they die off quickly, you can unfortunately suffer another infection with corona virus and then the cycle may start all over again.
This is how we find out if and how long you are immune to a corona infection
With our antibody tests that we have done on as many pupils in as many schools as possible, we can estimate how many pupils have already been infected with the corona virus. In order to know whether pupils will also be infected during the next few months, we need to repeat the tests in autumn 2020 and spring 2021.
Since the antibodies can only be detected with certainty from blood, we need to take some blood from you and your colleagues. It is possible that we can find the antibodies in your saliva. To check this, you have to spit twice into a tube. Finally, we ask you and your parents to fill out a questionnaire that we can find out whether you had any signs of illness, for example, and how your family protected themselves against the corona virus.
At the end of the questionnaire we will ask you a few questions. We would like to know how you are doing right now and how you felt during the time that the school was closed.
