Tense situation in children's hospitals: mask as an "important reason for the current crisis"?

Created: 12/07/2022, 11:20 am

Many children's hospitals in NRW are currently at their limit due to the high number of patients.

(Iconic image) © Sebastian Gollnow/DPA

The situation for children is dangerous due to the rampant RS virus - even at the beginning of the cold season.

Is the mask part of the solution or part of the problem?

Berlin – The situation in Germany's children's hospitals is tense, many children's wards are already full and can no longer accept new patients.

The reason for this is a huge wave of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections meeting the shortage of health care workers.

Pediatrician President Thomas Fischbach warns that the peak of the wave of infections is still to come - and sees a mask requirement not as a solution, but as part of the problem.

Only the beginning of the cold season: "The peak of the infection wave is still ahead of us"

Pediatrician President Thomas Fischbach fears that the tense situation in the children's hospitals will worsen.

"We are in a dangerous situation for the children, especially for the little ones," said the President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ) in view of the overcrowded medical practices and children's clinics due to respiratory diseases of the

.

Many pediatric practices and children's wards are currently extremely overcrowded.

From the point of view of the president of paediatricians, it could get even worse: "Because usually at the beginning of December we are only at the beginning of the cold season.

So the peak of the infection wave is still ahead of us.”

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection can be particularly dangerous for babies.

"The little ones in particular often suffer severely, including shortness of breath and insufficient oxygen supply," the doctor continues.

"Even newborns with RSV infection sometimes rush out because they can't get enough air and then have to be given oxygen in hospitals.

We have not seen this in the case of corona infections in children.”

Mask requirement not part of the solution but part of the problem?

However, Fischbach, President of Pediatricians, does not see a return to the mask requirement for children and parents as the solution.

On the contrary: “The cry for masks is the usual reflex of politics.

The mask requirement for the past two years is an important reason for the current crisis, ”said the doctor.

Because because of the masks, neither the children's nor the parents' immune systems were trained.

Other experts, such as the Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, Carsten Watzl, have rejected this view in the past.

"The immune system is not a muscle: it does not regress if it is not used or is used less," Watzl explained to the dpa in July.

The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, also spoke to the

on Tuesday in favor of isolating corona infected people and wearing masks.

Pediatrician President describes Karl Lauterbach's proposed solution as "insane"

Fischbach called the announcement by Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) that nursing staff from the adult sector would be used to support pediatrics “insane”.

In his view, the crisis could at least be mitigated with an “exemption from the obligation to provide a certificate for daycare and school children with mild respiratory diseases”.

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The German Nursing Council (DPR) was similarly critical of Lauterbach's proposal.

"This can only be described as an act of desperation," DPR President Christine Vogler told the

.

“In the clinics, only the minimum care can already be secured.

We no longer have a ward where you can withdraw nurses.” Nurses from other clinical departments would not automatically have the qualification to provide care in the pediatric intensive care unit.

In view of the shortage of skilled workers in social and nursing professions, Vogler also advocated a compulsory social year for all school leavers in Germany.

"As a society, we have to come together again and learn that we have to devote more attention to the sick, children and the weak in the social system," Vogler continued

.