From London. With the goal of 15 million vaccinated fulfilled, with the steep decline in infections and deaths, Boris Johnson seeks an orderly exit from current national lockdown, the third since the pandemic began. The central lever of your strategy is also your Achilles heel: school.
Post-confinement normality depends to a large extent on the boys returning to the classroom, freeing their parents and reactivating their economic-social insertion. “Education is our number one priority, then will come the reopening of non-essential businesses and in due course and as far as we can, of hospitality, gastronomy and recreation,” said Johnson.
The two previous reopens – between May and August, and the pre-Christmas one – ended in tears: rushed return to confinement, triggered cases and overflow of the NHS, the British health system. Next Monday the prime minister will announce what the system will be like to replace the hard confinement that began on January 5 throughout the United Kingdom.
The government set four criteria to get out of confinement: success of the vaccination program, reduction in the number of hospitalizations and deaths, and control of the new variants. In recent days the emphasis has been on the number of infections. “We need the contagion rate to drop to its lowest level. That is essential, ”said the prime minister.
Experience seems to have forged a Boris Johnson model 2021 characterized by prudence. Today the date and modality of the return to the classroom is at the center of the debate: last year it was a motive for male boasting, as if the virus could be overcome with a warlike spirit, strength and will. The big issue is how to ensure the safety of teachers and students. “The danger when there are many people together, even in the case of minors, is that there are new variants and mutations in that population and that the disease spreads to more risk groups,” warned Johnson 2021 model.
Labor opposition and education unions proposed mass vaccination of teachers and professors. The proposal generated an intense debate. Curiously in the center-left media The Guardian Y The Observer some columnists appeared criticizing the Labor position while the Conservative The Daily Telegraph some voices demanded that the safety of educators be guaranteed. “Vaccinating young teachers may be a nice idea but it is not so nice if the cost is an increase in preventable deaths. The data show that teachers, unlike taxi drivers or factory workers, are not in more danger of death than the general population, “said Sonia Sodha in the progressive Sunday The Observer.
The “data” is less neutral than Sodha thinks. In the chain of students, teachers and social contacts (parents, family, friends), primary school children are mostly asymptomatic, with a very low risk of becoming seriously ill and a limited ability to spread. “This has not changed with mutations and variants,” specialist Mike Tildesley told the BBC.
In short, they are not a serious danger, but they are not harmless either.. Things get complicated with high school students who are at least as communicative as adults. “In December, the level of infection among boys increased dramatically. In secondary schools one in 40 students was infected, in elementary schools, one in fifteen. This was the result of the government’s failure to offer protection to schools. We have written to school principals, employers and the government to make it clear to them that the security conditions for teaching face-to-face classes are not in place, ”the National Education Union said in a recent statement. According to the National Office of Statistics (ONS), nurses, cleaning staff, social workers, taxi drivers and security workers are at higher risk than teachers. With that frozen stick that statistics use, the risk of death for a high school teacher is calculated to be “only” slightly higher than that of the general population: 39 and 21 deaths in male and female teachers per 100,000 people compared to 31 and 17 in the rest of the population.
There is no more time
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) has this week to finalize its action plan before Johnson announces the new roadmap next Monday. According to two conservative newspapers, The Sun and the Daily Telegraph, the government plan will give priority in the vaccination program to educators of a certain age.
Beyond this political will of the government, it is impossible to vaccinate all teachers and professors at risk by March 8, especially considering that it takes two weeks for the immunity of the first dose to be fully activated .
Johnson did not rule out a staggered return to classrooms. “We have not made a specific decision. March 8 has long been a priority for families and the government. Our intention is begin the process of returning to the classroom on that date, ”said the prime minister. The President of the Confederation of the National Health Service (NHS), Lord Victor Adeborale, recommended extreme caution. “The NHS is on its knees. March 8 may be too early to start classes again ”, Lord Adeborale pointed out.
The topic divides parent groups. On the one hand are “Us For Them”, which is presented on its website as “tens of thousands of parents who want schools to reopen as soon as possible” and are advised by Ted Baker, a prominent conservative politician. On the opposite side is “Parents United Against Unsafe Schools” that has been demanding greater safety in the classrooms before returning to classes.
In the midst of the crossfire, teachers and professors feel themselves on the tightrope. Sarah Biasibetti, a high school French and Italian teacher, told Pagina / 12 that she fears for her own safety. “This I already had when we returned to classes in September and again in December. I have already told my supervisor that I am not at all comfortable with the idea of going back to class. It will be necessary to see what the government comes up with and what response the union gives”, He told this newspaper.
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