“It cannot be that children of all people should stop the fourth wave”
The mask requirement in schools should end. Now, of all times, doctors are noticing many respiratory diseases in children
Source: AFP
An unusual wave of respiratory infections is currently rampant among children in Germany. At the same time, the mask requirement in schools is to be lifted. Overdue or Dangerous? This is what the experts argue.
Et seems to fit like a fist on the eye: Just as several federal states are preparing to lift the mask requirement in schools, German paediatricians are reporting that an unusually high number of children have recently been diagnosed with respiratory infections. This includes not only harmless flu-like infections that end with colds, coughs and fever after a few days. The Robert Koch Institute reports that a striking number of one to four year olds are hospitalized for infections with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This infection of the upper respiratory tract can be particularly dangerous for premature babies as well as previously ill children in the first year of life. This is also confirmed by the pediatrician Professor Jörg Dötsch from the University Hospital Cologne: “We currently have an incredible number of children with RSV in the clinic, an infection that otherwise occurs more frequently during the winter months. The children’s clinics all over Germany are full. “
But that’s by no means unexpected, says Dötsch. Because of the distance and hygiene measures during the pandemic, the youngest have so far had less contact with RSV. “That does not mean that these children have a weakened immune system,” emphasizes the doctor. Rather, many toddlers would now have to catch up with this infection. Larger outbreaks of RSV among children were reported in Israel in May and in the United States, Australia and Japan during the summer months. The RKI therefore warned in the summer to prepare for a similar scenario.
However, one has to differentiate: whether or not schoolchildren wear masks should not be of decisive importance for RSV infections, which are particularly rampant among infants and small children. With general hygiene measures, RSV can only be postponed for a while, but not prevented forever.
But the current wave of infections could give a foretaste of the coming winter. There have been fears for a long time that colds and, above all, the next wave of flu will be particularly severe after the flu had completely stopped last winter. With these infections, too, it could be that many people have to “catch up” with infections because their immune system has not been in contact with the pathogens for a long time.
In addition, there should be far more corona infections again in winter. No modeling is required for this prediction, only the low temperatures and the fact that many people will be in closed rooms make this very likely. Dötsch therefore considers it premature to lift the mask requirement in schools. “We have to prevent everything from happening at once,” says the President of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Medicine. The masks are uncomfortable for everyone and make non-verbal communication more difficult. Contrary to some claims, all studies have shown that the masks do not endanger the health of the children. According to the pediatrician, the masks are the lesser evil in the current unsafe situation. “The top priority must be to avoid school closings, because it has been proven that they cause considerable damage to children and adolescents.”
Hajo Zeeb from the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology is equally concerned. “Normally, measures are loosened when incidences fall, now you do it when incidences rise.” Especially in the young age groups, there would be an explosive increase in infections in some places. Obviously, according to Zeeb, the discomfort about the masks and the fact that children rarely get seriously ill with Covid-19 outweigh the efforts to protect the children from the infections. “However, we still have winter ahead of us,” Zeeb points out. In his opinion, schools should at least be free to reintroduce the mask requirement, depending on the infection situation. “Otherwise lessons could always be canceled because entire classes are quarantined.”
The virologist Lars Dölken from the University of Würzburg argues differently. “When children wear masks, it primarily protects the parents.” Ever since the highly infectious delta variant, an infected child inevitably infects the rest of the family. “A mask requirement in schools is primarily intended to prevent larger foci of infection from forming and spilling over into the rest of society.” With the current vaccination rates, a fourth wave will inevitably come among the elderly, says Dölken. “But it can’t be that this should stop our children now. It would make much more sense if only the children whose parents have been vaccinated no longer had to wear masks. “
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