The debate on returning to school safely after the Christmas holidays continues, on 10 January, in light of the leap in infections and hospitalizations.
The Undersecretary of Health Pierpaolo Sileri assures us that we can leave safely.
On the school "a careful evaluation has been made, with a long comparison, guidelines have been produced that will allow the school to resume safely. It is likely that this Omicron variant, which will further increase the cases, represents the swan song of the pandemic, I think we are in the final stages. The pandemic will soon turn into an endemic. " "We know that at school, infections can occur more easily because the smaller the vaccinated population is, but the damage is also less - he added - with masks, distancing and quarantine, I believe the situation will be under control. It is clear that there will be a greater circulation of the virus after the Christmas break, but I believe that with the rules that have been set the school will be a safe place. Surely there will be quarantines and dad,but you can start again in safety with these rules ".
The president of the Gimbe foundation,
Cartabellotta, takes the opposite view: "We cannot continue with the slogan 'no Dad, safe school' because this is in fact not possible in a moment of circulation of a virus that doubles cases every two days. It is clear that what the principals are asking, that is to use these two weeks to boost vaccination, is reasonable. But two weeks of Dad without any intervention to increase vaccination coverage in these age groups can leave the time it finds. that with this viral circulation it will be very difficult to keep the classes in attendance, "he added.
Cartabellotta then observed: "Now everything has been focused on vaccinations, but for example, as regards the age group 5-11 we have done in three weeks about 400 thousand vaccinations which for some are many but in reality there are still 3 million and 200 thousand children to be vaccinated. 900 thousand of them still remain in the 12-19 age group. This Christmas period was to be used to better invest in communication and vaccination for the entire 5-19 year age group who would have returned to school ".
Along the same lines, albeit of a personal nature, is Guido Rasi, consultant to the Commissioner for the Covid emergency Figliuolo and former executive director of the European Medicines Agency (Ema)
. In this epidemiological context, "two weeks of distance learning would be very important. Because today we are at 200 thousand underestimated cases, let's imagine in a week what we will see. If we don't do two weeks now we will have to do something fragmented for the next three months". He said this, stressing that he was speaking "in an absolutely personal capacity".
Yesterday numerous principals addressed an appeal to the Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi and the presidents of the Regions asking for "a planned and provisional suspension of face-to-face lessons (with the activation of remote lessons) for two weeks is certainly preferable to an unmanageable situation that will certainly cause fragmentation, interruption of lessons and poor training effectiveness ".