In a forum, doctors call for children under 12 to be protected before the school year begins

Because Covid-19 is also affecting young people. In a column published Thursday by the worldAbout thirty doctors, researchers and teachers appealed to the government. “In the United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain… Pediatricians and scientific societies are calling for greater protection for children under 12. Today it is our turn to sound the alarm.” Write two weeks before the start of the school year.

The group, which includes epidemiologists Dominic Costaliola and William Dobb, infectious disease specialists Jill Bialo and Dr Jerome Marty, president of the UFML Liberal Physicians Union, is concerned about the high contamination of the delta variant of the coronavirus. They stress that “the number of hospitalizations for children aged 0-19 years is increasing in countries where the delta variant is the majority”, such as in France, which has a prevalence of over 98%. In France, 1.2% of children aged 0-9 who tested positive were hospitalized in the past year. The number of hospitalizations now has doubled compared to last year on the same date, and the number of children aged 10-19 has also increased. Four times, “They are worried.

The incidence rate between 0-19 years is five times higher

In order to better protect the health of students, the signatories to the forum stress that “effective pollution prevention measures must be adopted from the beginning of the school year” scheduled for September 2 for all. Four levels of health measures (green, yellow, orange and red) in schools were defined in the protocol published on 28 July.

“We need to determine the regional level of application, the epidemiological indicators and thresholds that lead to the transition from one level to another” without further delay, the group said. It would be unreasonable to consider resuming “Level 2” of the Health Protocol (editor’s note: Jill, which specifically provides personalized care to all students), when the infection rate is five times greater between 0-19 years than it was initially for the school year 2020.

Air purification protocol “failed”

The mask should not be removed in primary schools, because “the closure of classes in the first specific case should extend to all levels”, continues the forum. The signatories also refer to the protocol’s “failure” to purify the air. “Windows should be opened more often, and the recommendation to equip institutions with carbon dioxide detectors cannot be enough: this should be the norm,” say specialists, who regret the lack of action against canteens.

“This summer, Ireland and Quebec equipped all seasons with CO2 detectors, while New York, Philadelphia and Frankfurt are installing scrubbers,” the signatories say.