Quique Bassat (Barcelona, 47 years) is an epidemiologist, pediatrician and researcher at the Global Health Institute of Barcelona.He is a member of the Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics that has advised the Government in the elaboration of health protocols in educational centers, and has closely followed the evolution of infections among students among students.The school, which last year resisted the virus much better than expected, issued in December some alarming signals, with a progressive increase in outbreaks and quarantine groups.The concern of families and teachers now focuses on the impact that the explosive capacity of infection of the omicron variant can have in January in school activity.

The Government has convened on January 4 an intersectoral meeting of the Ministers of Health, Education and Universities with the counselors of the respective portfolios of the Autonomous Communities with a view to analyzing the return to classes.

Ask.What health context expects when classes resume?

Response.Possibly worse than now.No one knows it with certainty, but mathematical models suggest that it is possible that growth continues and the peak is seen around January 15.It may be that things improve before or begin to see the effect of some measures that communities are taking, but it does not look good.

P.The schools finished the first quarter with enough problems, how do you expect January to be?

R.It depends on the seriousness with which the measures are taken.We know that if things are done well, the risk is less than what we saw at the end of the past quarter.We will begin to have a still small but important number of students who have received the first dose.It is doubtful that that will protect them, but I could start having a small impact.Both things should begin to be noticed.Of course, everyone will be much more aware that you have to do things better.

P. ¿Se puede confiar en el efecto de la vacuna para salvar la escuela? Los niños no tendrán la pauta completa hasta finales de febrero o principios de marzo.

R. Sí, pero no se descarta que el plazo de ocho semanas entre la primera y la segunda dosis se acorte si llegan más vacunas.The decision to space them was taken, in my opinion, because it was thought that perhaps there would be not enough.If we have more, the deadline could be reduced to three weeks, as in the rest of the age groups.As long as it does not happen, we must assume that until March the majority will not be protected, although we have passed other waves in which there were no vaccinated child and the schools have remained open doing things right.

P.With the omicron the panorama seems more complicated.

R.If the situation remains equally bad, we may have to take more drastic measures at the population level, that is unquestionable.But we have always defended that schools should not be the first to close, but probably the latest.

P. ¿Debe endurecerse el protocolo sanitario de los centros educativos?

R. Es una opción, yo creo que no es necesario, simplemente debería aplicarse muy estrictamente el que tenemos, que es lo que sospecho que no se hizo tan bien en las últimas semanas del curso.The only big change that has been compared to the last year has been the increase in the number of children per bubble group, of about 20 to rather the size of the normal class, almost up to 30.This would be difficult to change it right now, because it implies the hiring of many people and it was the main reason why this restriction was eliminated.The rest is still basically the same, but I think it has been applied less rigorously.What should be done is to return to the controls that were initially.Control again that sick children do not enter school, even with measures as simple as temperature taking, as was done in some places and then stopped doing progressively.That families know that a sick child should not go to school, even if it is simply because they have puppets.This was applied very rigorously when we all had present what happened in 2020 and we were very aware that no rule had to break.

P. Los institutos han aguantado mejor que los colegios esta primera parte del curso, lo que se ha atribuido a la alta vacunación de los adolescentes a partir del verano.But the data reflect that the infections between them also grow rapidly.

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R. Estamos viendo infecciones en todos los grupos de edad, presumiblemente porque empieza a decaer la eficacia de la segunda dosis, y eso incluye a los adolescentes y a los adultos jóvenes.The exception are the elderly, especially from the age of 70, who are the most recent doses.If schools and institutes reopen, they will have to do so following the strictest possible measures, as we did in the return to school in September 2020 and in September this year.

P.Infections between teachers have also increased, which were one of the first professional groups to be immunized.Should we get back again?

R.Yes, totally.They should be vaccinated with the third dose as essential workers, as was done last year.

P.How has the reappearance of other respiratory viruses influenced, absent in 2020, in the behavior of families?

R.They have made people trust.In September there was the fact that only about 1% or 2% of children with mucus had covid, and that the rest were due to other typical respiratory viruses of childhood, which this year have circulated again abundantly.And that message helped the parents send them to school.But it was a time when the positivity rate in Covid tests in pediatric groups was very low and in the general population it was also low.Now we are in a totally different situation.If children have moccos, it is time to suspect that it is covid, although it may be something else.

P.What should parents do?

R. Fijarse mucho en la aparición de síntomas.If the child has symptoms, he shouldn't go to school.Use fast tests, which have their problems, but can be useful.And fulfill the confinement if there are positive at home, both of adults and children.

P. Si la incidencia sigue aumentando, en enero la actividad escolar puede ser muy difícil por el encadenamiento de cuarentenas.Should we review the standard that provides to confine the entire bubble group if there is a positive?

R. Es una posibilidad.What interests me is the well -being of children.The physicist, logically, do not get sick, and for now we remain calm because it seems that the omicron variant does not cause different disease in children, which is still mild or asymptomatic.And their psychological well -being and mental health, which we see that we are very affected when we confine them at home.That is why I think schools must remain open.And maybe explore other methods if we continue to see a confinement of bubble groups as high as we saw at the end of the quarter.

P.As for example, confine only the positive students of a bubble group?

R.Yes, to the positive positive and those who have symptoms.Epidemiologically is incorrect, but we are in a period of such complexity that we could consider measures such as this.

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