“Some time ago we shared and recommended the statements of the Head of Pediatrics Dr. Laura Viola, when she stated that it was necessary to allow children a normal life, where the pandemic trend had allowed it. In fact, from a physical point of view, the impact of Covid on the younger age groups does not raise particular problems, while from the emotional and psychological side the discomfort is increasingly evident and serious, with a boom in pathologies of neuropsychiatric interest “.

Thus began a reflection on the Covid emergency and the relationship with minors (children and young people) of the‘Pro Bimbi Association of San Marino.

“Several doctors and pediatricians have asked for a change of direction in the Covid approach in children, primarily Prof. Gian Vincenzo Zuccotti, chairman of medicine at the State University and head of pediatrics at Sacco and Buzzi in Milan, who suggested keeping only the symptomatic child at home and returning to normal pre-pandemic, saying that “there is no need to buffer or quarantine the whole class or it is already happening in many schools. If we act with new-found normality, we avoid restarting the DAD, a nightmare for the students, but also for the parents, forced to stay at home with a thousand problems of work and for the country’s economy“. In fact, the latter reality is also bringing the school system to its knees due to the lack of staff, absent due to quarantines and now exhausted even in the rankings and there is a risk of having to close classes for this reason.

“It was quite predictable that what is happening in schools would happen – explains Zuccotti – but I am not an amplifier of the infection and it has become demonstrated in a study last year: doing a student screening with the lancing device for the research of students, in the group of who was negative then it is positive follow up, we found no difference between those who were in Dad and those who were in school, because the school simply reflects what happens in society. At the moment the virus is circulating in a very high way, and it is inevitable that in a very high way it circulates in the school“.

So today we are in this situation, describes Zuccotti: “Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 is circulating a lot. Fortunately, children have this infection mostly in a paucisymptomatic or asymptomatic way. Maybe there is someone who becomes symptomatic or ends up hospitalized, but as was the case with the flu. If we add to this that we now have a largely vaccinated population, and that we are using antigen tests a lot mainly to try to supervise children, even knowing that they are not very useful for a true tracing, it seems to me that in a similar framework we can try the way of normalization“.

“Making T0-T5 buffers with antigenic products are of little use – to conclude – I would eliminate them and reserve tampons only for symptomatic children who are the only ones who have to stay at home as was the case in pre-Covid times. The others without quarantine and without tampons go to schools“.

In the dialogue and discussion that we have always had both with Pediatrics and with the Education Secretariat, we found ourselves in agreement from the beginning of the school year in asking ourselves if it still made sense to continue to trace all the children in a class, asymptomatic, every time in the group a positivity was presented, underlining how this necessarily led to the waste of enormous energy and energy of people and economic resources, subtracting them from other activities or constant sectors of health.

Considering both at school and on the means of transport masks are worn, we believe, in line with the new protocols, more profitable for everyone should provide that those who are positive or have symptoms stay at home and that the tracing to contacts come as symptoms, letting them continue a in presence, prescribing them a period of self-monitoring of the symptoms combined with the current rules of attending precautions, such as the use of the mask, the spacing and the exchange of air and reserving the tampon only for those who must suffer from the symptoms.

Certainly a strong sense of responsibility will be needed on the part of families and teachers and it will be necessary to continue to pay the right attention to maintain an active surveillance on the progress of the pandemic, but it will avoid causing trouble the tracking system / tampons that could be found every day with so many classes to test for a handful of positives.

And, very importantly, the intolerable differences foreseen on the basis of the vaccination status by previous teachers for students (and teachers) of even higher schools and CFP have been eliminated, which we do not hesitate to reaffirm as strongly discriminatory, sanctioning and retaliatory, because they are more applied. in a school environment where discrimination has been fought for years and inclusion is pursued in all areas.

We do not want to be polemical, but we admit our personal and human disappointment in not having witnessed a position taken by the teaching staff against these evidence of discrimination against their students, both by virtue of their age (perhaps taken by parents) , but also why, in the case of more positive in the classroom, in addition to possible repeated periods of DAD, the unvaccinated and negative children in the control swab, should in any case also have to respect a real quarantine period and therefore remain closed in the house for at least 10 days. And this beyond any scientific evidence that has now shown how contagion and spread also occur among vaccinated people (also by virtue of their epidemiological relevance, given that it represents 85% of the population) and which absolutely makes these measures as an act of strength for sport to push those very few young people still unvaccinated to vaccinate, also affecting the last one left to them in this period (education), after preventing access to places of sociality, events and … especially for the 16-18 year old group who it seems never to be considered among minors.

We therefore reiterate Fr.I appreciate the approval of this latest protocol, which eliminates previously existing discrimination and goes in the direction of a return to pre-pandemic normality. Normalities that entire European states are also returning to, such as England, which announced the revocation of the vaccination Green Pass and even the obligation to wear a mask indoors. We commend the Secretary of Education, the Director of the Department and the Head of Pediatrics for having proposed these guidelines since September with a view to protecting the psychophysical well-being of our children and young people as a whole. In thanking all the ISS services that have elaborated, shared and approved these protocols, we hope that this is a first big step towards a gradual return to normality for all “.