Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1287818
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 SEPTEMBER 2020 INTERVIEW The Commission has just rec- ommended the re-opening of schools, arguing that: "Chil- dren must be protected from the risks of COVID-19; but their educational, social and mental wellbeing must also be catered for". This contrasts with a state- ment you released last March, in which you recommended 'keeping children at home as much as possible.' What made you change your views since then? First of all, I understand that there is a lot of anxiety surround- ing this issue; and I can relate to that anxiety… because even I, as a grandmother, feel concerned. But there is a difference be- tween today and last March. In the first few months of the cri- sis, very little was known about this virus: not just here in Malta, but all over the world. We didn't know how to manage the situa- tion. And there was a lot of fear. People over 55 – including my- self – were made to feel more vulnerable than they really were. At the time, it felt unsafe even just to go to the grocery down the street. The sensation was that the virus was absolutely everywhere; and the advice we were given was to stay at home. The fear was so great, that most people heeded that advice. In any case, there was nowhere to go… except maybe for a solitary walk by the sea. Shops were closed; restaurants and bars likewise; so even if peo- ple wanted to defy the health recommendations, the simple fact was that they couldn't. So people had no option but to self-isolate… and we now know that this had had a disastrous ef- fect on mental health: not just for adults, or vulnerable categories; but even for children. In time, however, we began seeing what was happening in the rest of the world. We began to realise that – while there nat- urally still remains the need to be cautious – some of that fear had been exaggerated. Having said this, I still think it was premature to open everything up again so abruptly this summer: especially when it comes to parties and mass gath- erings. You can't expect young people not to go out and enjoy themselves… or, even less, to ob- serve social distancing at a mass event. Nonetheless, the impression we all had at the beginning – that it was unsafe to go out at all, under any circumstance – has since been revised. We now know more about the virus, and how to contain it. This is why I feel that, while the need to protect chil- dren from COVID-10 remains in place, we can no longer ignore their educational, social and mental wellbeing needs. But while there are obvious differences between 'going to school' and 'attending a mass event'… it is still a case of large numbers of people gathering in the same place. Why, then, should the same restrictions not also apply to school attend- ance? The main difference is that, un- like party or mass event, school is a controlled environment. If you look at the guidelines issued by the Education Ministry, for in- stance, you will realise that they are more or less the same guide- lines issued by the World Health Organisation. The underlying rationale is that the rate of transmission between children is very low. In fact, chil- dren account for only 2% of the total number of cases globally. And the effect of the virus itself is less severe on children. In Mal- ta, certainly, there have been no child fatalities to date. Even in the rest of the world, the child mortality rate has been very low… But the argument is more about the danger of children passing on the virus to adults: including their parents, grandparents, and even teachers… I am certainly no expert in med- ical matters; but again, the WHO guidelines suggest that children are not significant drivers of the pandemic. Research shows that it is actually adults who have a much higher chance of infecting children, than vice versa. So all this emphasis on children posing a health risk to adults is, I think, misplaced. Besides: the reality is that children have been free to run around outdoors all summer anyway. It wasn't a problem for children to go to the beach, or to attend birthday or confirmation parties. So why is it suddenly a problem for children to go back to school? Part of the answer might be that people are sceptical about the Education Ministry's guidelines themselves. The Malta Union of Teachers, for instance, argues that some of the measures – in- cluding the concept of 'bubbles' [keeping students within close- ly confined groups] – cannot be implemented for purely practi- cal reasons. What are your own views? I don't think there is a problem with the guidelines themselves. If we were to follow them to the letter, I think everybody would be safe. But – because there is always a In the midst of a resurgence of COVID-19, many are questioning the wisdom of re-opening schools. But Children's Commissioner PAULINE MICELI argues that the risk of not sending children to school is greater than the risk posed by the virus itself Let's make it work Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt