Government research that said children are more likely than adults to contract the coronavirus is “fundamentally flawed,” nine influential health researchers have claimed.

Unleashing numerous criticisms against a report summing up the research, which was shown to ministers on Wednesday, the experts said its suggestion that the dramatic rise in coronavirus cases seen in September was due to schools reopening is deeply mistaken “from an epidemiological viewpoint.”

The Health Ministry document presented figures that were said to show high coronavirus rates among kids, and warned that sending children back to schools at a time of high COVID-19 morbidity “may accelerate the spread of the virus.”

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It claimed that children can act as “superspreaders” since 51% to 70% of them do not show symptoms of the virus, and said that in 17 cases tracked by the Health Ministry, children managed to infect over 10 of their peers.

The critics, in contrast, believe that the outbreak was actually propelled more by adults infecting kids during multi-generation family vacations than by kids infecting........

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