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Measures This is the calendar that pediatricians propose for the removal of masks in schools
On the Public Health Commission meeting this Thursday, the focus was on seeing if they agreed on something in relation to eliminating
masks in classrooms
, as the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) had proposed,
or on whether quarantines of close contacts were reduced. and positive: from the current 7 days to 5 days.
Well, the aforementioned meeting that has taken place throughout this Thursday morning has not addressed either of these two issues.
The agreements have focused on establishing the so-called common vaccination schedule throughout life for the year 2022,
which in practice is a minimum vaccination schedule,
since on this basis there are autonomous communities that decide to finance more immunizations.
Also at this meeting of the Public Health Commission, it has been established that the Draft Royal Decree on Public Health Surveillance
remains open for public consultation until March 2
.
This RD will establish the regulatory framework in which public health surveillance will take place in Spain in the coming years, placing the Public Health Surveillance Network as its backbone.
In any case, although on this occasion Public Health has not dealt
with the elimination of masks in classrooms
, this issue along with other decisions to reduce virus containment measures will land in the aforementioned Commission, after going through the presentation of experts in public health.
As this newspaper has learned, the technicians of the health services of the different autonomous communities and members of the aforementioned paper would be working on a new strategy for the scenario that results after overcoming the sixth wave.
However, this change will not be immediate.
"We must wait to have all the information on the impact of this sixth epidemic wave. It cannot be automatic either, since it requires interconnection of all information systems and adaptation of possible
public health measures that may be linked to this new stage and, probably, they are focused on the protection of the most vulnerable people
", point out sources close to that presentation.
Reactions to the proposal to eliminate masks in classrooms
On the other hand, the recommendation to remove the masks in the classrooms,
which the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) raised to the Ministry of Health
, has been the subject of debate in the Interterritorial Council that was held yesterday.
"On the proposal of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, that the mandatory use of masks in classrooms can now be avoided, the position of the entire Interterritorial has been to, on the one hand, thank the association's proposal and the Once we continue with the methodology that we have, which, like the rest of the measures, will be seen first in the technical presentation, where the specialists in epidemiology are, and, later, the measures that are approved will be in the Public Health Commission and on some occasion they will arrive to the Interterritorial, but
we are not going to change the procedure in this case
, "said Pablo Ignacio Fernández Muñiz, Minister of Health of
Asturias
, at the conclusion of the Interterritorial this Wednesday.
The second vice president of the Board and Minister of Health of
Extremadura
, José María Vergeles, has publicly expressed his opinion regarding the proposal of the paediatricians.
According to the EFE agency, he said this Thursday that, "personally",
the withdrawal of masks in classrooms seems "premature"
.
Thus, he has pointed out that there are still high incidences in the child population and has indicated that his position at the meeting this past Wednesday of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System was that,
if the recommendations of paediatricians have to be studied, is made.
For this reason, he has proposed that these "scientific reasons" be sent to the alert report of the National Health System so that, if necessary and properly justified by these professionals,
that criterion can be adopted.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Junta de
Castilla y León
, Carlos Fernández Carriedo,
has called for a joint decision within the framework of the Interterritorial Council
on the abolition of masks in classrooms and the possibility of shortening quarantines due to Covid-19, as
Catalonia
has proposed. .
For his part, the general director of Public Health of
Cantabria
, Reinhard Wallmann, has been
"totally open" to evaluating and rethinking
the use of the mask in classrooms and considers that it could be "possible" to withdraw it at a moment. "low incidence".
With a reasoning similar to that adopted by the AEP in its recommendation, Wallmann pointed out this Thursday that there is some
"evidence" that could speak in favor of the possibility of removing the masks
.
Among them, it is that it has been proven that in classrooms with children under 6 years of age, where the mask is not "mandatory" or "viable", the number of secondary infections -that is, those that occur after the detected a positive
- "is not significantly higher" than in classrooms of older children who do have it.
Epidemiology asks to wait
The president of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE), Elena Vanessa Martínez,
In statements to this newspaper, she has not been in favor of removing the masks from children in classrooms.
"
If we remove the masks from the children in the classrooms, then we are going to remove them in the rest of the places
, because the risk is the same. Perhaps it is not their fault, the children, but they have a risk, because they are cared for by parents and grandparents who are older and more vulnerable to the disease".
Therefore, the president of the SEE considers that "we must hope that we can say if masks are removed in closed places", to remove the masks from children.
In addition, she adds that "this course we have returned to very tight ratios,
which not only harm Covid, but also children's education
."
And she "she has defended that these actions must always be backed by scientific criteria", in statements this Thursday, after the meeting of the Governing Council, in Valladolid.
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