Are children more at risk of staying at home than going to school?

• This Monday the Minister of National Education said that, according to the French Pediatric Society, there was "more risk of staying at home than going to school".
• If the SFP is indeed favorable to the reopening of the primary schools decided by the government, it however never said that the children were less risk to return to class than to remain confined at home.
• On the other hand, psychological and physical risks can be felt in some children after almost two months of confinement.

It is the little sentence of this beginning of the week which agitates the French parents, while the start of the school year started this Tuesday in the majority of the primary schools of the country. Invited to speak on the subject on Europe 1 Monday morning, the Minister of National Education Jean-Michel Blanquer said that according to "the French pediatric society and many pediatricians and scientists, there is more risk to stay at home than going to school (…) provided that a very strict health protocol is respected ”.

After two months of confinement during which the government has constantly reminded the French of the importance of staying at home to fight against the spread of the Covid-19, the message has something to surprise on the web. "In this case, if we push its logic, there was more risk in being confined than in living freely ??? Asks a Facebook user. "Or how to adapt his speech according to the objectives to be achieved, it would become almost pathetic if it were not about our life and that of the children", reacts another.

Jean-Michel Blanquer reassures parents: "There are more risks in staying at home than going to school" https://t.co/IsBkeIgwXu

It is not only internet users who were surprised by the communication from the Minister of Education. "After two months of confinement come and explain that" there are more risks in staying at home than going to school "... we had to dare. Once again the doctrine changes with a wet finger, fueling growing distrust, "for example tweeted Olivier Faure, the boss of the Socialist Party.

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Contacted by 20 Minutes , the Ministry of National Education simply referred us to two links on which Jean-Michel Blanquer had relied before making this statement. The first is the testimony of Jean-Paul Stahl, professor of infectious and tropical diseases at the Grenoble University Hospital, who declared on France Info on May 6 that "leaving the children at home (...) would put them at additional risk". The second refers to "an explanatory note intended for medical personnel in order to present the specificities of Covid-19 in children", issued by the French Pediatric Society "at the request of the Minister of National Education and youth, Jean-Michel Blanquer ".

What does this note say then? that“The child represents a very small part (1 to 5%) of the diagnosed cases [of Covid-19] in the world. "In France, pediatric cases represent less than 1.5% of the cases reported in the age group 0 to 19 years, continues the French Pediatric Society, before specifying: this proportion is certainly underestimated, because the children often make mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic forms. They are therefore less likely to be tested by nasopharyngeal swab. "And to conclude:" In light of current studies, it is not possible to measure the effect of the closure of schools on the spread of the virus. Furthermore, there is no study assessing the epidemic impact of the reopening of schools. However, it is possible that the role of children in the transmission of the COVID-19 virus is less important than that of adults. "

What risks are we talking about?

As we can see, at no time did the French Pediatric Society formally say that there is less risk for a child to go to school than to stay at home. The only sentence closest to what the minister said was that of Christelle Gras-Le Guen, vice-president of the SFP in an interview with the site theconversation.com: "Given the upsurge of domestic violence and mistreatment observed since the establishment of confinement, for some children the real risk, unfortunately, would even be rather to stay at home… ”.

Therein lies the ambiguity of the statement by the Minister of National Education. "It actually depends on what risks we are talking about," explains child psychiatrist and epidemiologist Viviane Kovess-Masfety. If we talk about health risks for children from catching Covid-19, it seems that it is indeed not huge. On the other hand, the risk for the mental health of the child, for his cognitions, it is real. You have kids who have not seen their friends for months, who have not been to class, not to mention the working conditions at home which are not always easy for all children… ”

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To fully understand the minister's remarks, it is therefore necessary to take the declaration in its entirety. We then realize that Jean-Michel Blanquer was alluding to risks as a whole and not only to health risks. “You have care [other than Covid] that is not being done, you have children who have food problems, you have children who experience family violence, all these matters must be borne in mind ", He said on Europe 1.

We can also add domestic accidents to this list, in particular serious domestic accidents (defenestrations, falls, burns), which have been increasing since the start of the epidemic in France, as indicated by the pediatric emergency department from the Purpan hospital in Toulouse at the end of April.

Pediatricians support reopening schools

To return to Jean-Michel Blanquer, he received the support of the French Pediatric Society through the voice of his vice-president, Professor Robert Cohen. "We completely agree with what the minister said, it is the general position of all the pediatricians who are represented by the French Pediatric Society and by the French Association of Ambulatory Pediatrics", told us he declared.

"We never said that there was no risk for children to go back to school, we said that the risk of transmission and contamination is lower in children than in adults, he specifies. And this risk is so much lower than the benefits that we can expect from a return to school on the health of both the most fragile children but also of all others, that the reopening of schools seems to us to be a good decision. . "

Remember, however, that for the moment, no study has come to support this theory. The Scientific Council, on which the government has relied since the start of the crisis to make decisions on containment, had also recommended that nurseries and schools remain closed until September.

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• Coronavirus
• Covid 19
• Deconfinement
• Fake Off
• Education
• National Education
• Jean-Michel Blanquer