“Last” Means: Researchers Speak Out Against School Closures – Coronavirus Vienna

Gerald Gartlehner, an expert in evidence-based medicine at Danube Krems University, doesn’t see an immediate reason for school closures in an interview with the APA. Numerous international studies have shown that children are much less likely to be infected with the virus than adults. The effects on the number of Covid 19 cases in this country due to the second lockdown should now be apparent by the end of the week. From a research perspective, there is still a lack of data.

Regional or national studies in Europe show, on the basis of the antibodies detected against the new coronavirus (seroprevalence), that so far children have been infected with a frequency at least mildly or significantly less than the older population groups . In Sweden or Belgium, antibodies were found less than half as often in children. In regional studies in Germany, the values ​​are sometimes even lower in comparison.

“That, of course, would speak against the currently discussed school closures, because children are obviously less involved in the process of infection in the population,” said the epidemiologist, who is also part of the commission for changing traffic lights. Corona who was advising on Thursday. Therefore, he will advocate in committee not to recommend broader school closings: “I think closing schools is the last thing we should do.”

As for the first effects of the second lockdown, currently we would still have to wait and see: “If the measures work, towards the end of the week we should see a stabilization of the figures, ideally perhaps a decrease,” Gartlehner said. If this is not the case, other measures should be considered. The fact that thousands of people riot at store openings or in shopping centers “without breaking any rules” should no longer happen. “I think the home office should be pushed even more,” said the scientist.

Unfortunately, politicians in practically all countries hardly care to create possibilities to assess which measures are really effective in what combination. You can only tell if and how school closures have an effect if it is done randomly in some regions and not others with the same measures. If something like this were reproduced once, the same basic discussion would not always result. “Then we would really have numbers to use the measures in a much more specific way,” Gartlehner emphasized. Furthermore, a socio-political and ethical discussion is needed in this country on how much opportunities for young people in general should really be reduced in the course of the crisis.

In the framework of the independent scientific network “Cochrane”, of which the researcher is a part, there is currently much discussion about the precision and useful use of different tests. In recent months, the network has been able to clearly show in general studies that quarantine measures make scientifically verifiable sense. “But only if the testing, follow-up and timely notification work beforehand,” says Gartlehner. Unfortunately, the establishment of an efficient system in Austria has been neglected. Now you hope that high-quality, effective antigen rapid tests will bring you relief.

The fact that the epidemiological situation has increased in such a way is in no way mainly due to a failure of the population, but at least also to the “non-functioning of the whole system”. The delays in testing and separation notices also occurred when the number of suspects and cases was significantly lower: “I think there is a lot of responsibility with the decision makers who did not go into the fall really well prepared.”

According to several studies, fever measurements at borders or when entering hospitals, as well as tests in population groups that are not expected to be infected, such as programs in the hotel and catering industry in Austria, make little sense. . Since many people are being examined in the dark for no medical-epidemiological reason, there is also the risk of producing a certain number of false positive results, with all its negative effects, including plant closure. Last but not least, this costs testing resources and contributes to longer wait times to get results where there are real suspicions, according to the expert.

He does not understand why around “150 million are subjected to senseless testing in tourism” and, at the same time, there are hardly any funds for scientific research that can provide important and reliable information in the fight against pandemics. “This also shows how little research is valued,” Gartlehner said: “We always fish in murky waters as long as we don’t have the numbers to show us whether a measure is effective or not.” Changing that is also the responsibility of decision makers towards the population.