(Expansion) – This is a controversial issue in recent days in social networks, in social groups of parents and it is an issue that worries me as a mother. Although it is true that children have already spent more than a year confined to their homes and need to socialize with other children their age, it is important to consider that there is still no approved vaccine for children, much less their arrival soon. to Mexico.
In the following lines I will briefly express some ideas for or against, in order that each one analyzes this situation and can make a decision according to their personal situation.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic it was said that this disease did not affect children or affected them very little, in fact, in a report issued by UNICEF in November 2020, it describes that, of 87 countries disaggregated by age, the children and adolescents accounted for 1 in 9 infections. Today it is known that they can contract this disease and that they can infect others; It has even been managed that it is possible that they cause an inflammation of their organs and this causes their death, called multisystemic inflammatory syndrome.
On February 19, 2021, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that it did not know what causes this syndrome, but that many children who contracted it had the virus that causes COVID- 19 or have been around someone with the virus. So far there is no information to conclude that the COVID-19 virus is directly related to this condition.
It is understood that after hearing about the seriousness to which the disease can reach children, some parents are concerned about going back to school. Children can transmit the disease among themselves and their older relatives, however, there are cases where children, due to the parents’ need, have had to continue attending school and with health measures the contagion has been zero.
Other parents, although their children have not had to attend school, have sought other extracurricular activities in order that their children could make the emotional situation that this confinement has generated more bearable, promoting social and / or sports activities, which , having been handled correctly, they have not been dangerous either.
The reality is that even if someone is infected, we are not sure where they contracted the virus and, after 14 months, it is rare to see a family that is still confined exclusively to their homes, without having contact with others.
Another very important point is to consider that, although there is a sector of the child population that can take distance classes, we should not overlook the technological gap between the population that does not have internet or electronic devices to take a class day in regular time. Moreover, I dare to say that there are those who, in the most vulnerable sectors, have not received lessons or feedback on their performance for 14 months or more and who do not know what will happen to their educational situation.
There are those children for whom school is their only “safe” environment to survive, in which they receive shelter, food, health and education, and they have been without school all this time. In addition to this, more and more companies / institutions are asking that parents, who are their workers, return to work and children must be left alone or in charge of other people, which also represents risks for minors.
As you will see, this is a highly complex situation, in my environment we say that it is multivariate, and making a decision with so much information handled from different perceptions is difficult. The main questions are: Who is going to ensure that sanitary measures are followed in schools? Are we ready for the return?
The reality is that at some point we will have to do it, the ideal would be that, if our circumstances allow it, we do it gradually, in staggered days, having the essential activities at school and the others from home; in this way we will be able to grant the opportunity for those who have to attend in person to do so without involving an agglomeration of people.
Editor’s note: Eva Selene Hernández Gress is a research professor at Tec de Monterrey. She is a Doctor of Science in Industrial Engineering and has more than 15 years of experience conducting research involving classic industrial engineering problem projects. Follow her on. The opinions published in this column belong exclusively to the author.
