Keeping schools safe from covid

The slow start to booster vaccinations for teenagers isn't surprising. Over the weekend, the number of children showing up for booster shots may rise, but those will be children and parents who have already been persuaded of the importance of vaccination.

The Health Ministry will soon be challenged to expand the scope of boosters and first vaccinations to even younger children, who are now demonstrably at risk with the reopening of schools and the rising number of child cases.

The Government of Spain stepped up in March to provide 40,000 vaccines designed for children five-11, a start on a cohort of students estimated to run to 240,000 vaccinations for full protection.

The long term impact of even mild infection in young children is still being evaluated.

The short history of mass covid19 vaccination in TT has not been impressive.

For example, in February, 260,000 vaccines, a gift from the US, expired. This did not amuse our beneficiary, who warned the government that such waste would diminish its generosity with further such gifts.

Getting vaccines into the arms of children between the ages of five and 11 is also likely to prove a challenge, and to date, the ministry has mounted no campaigns of persuasion and information to ensure that adults understand the importance of this preventive measure.

It often seems that greater industry and creativity go into avoiding or circumventing the vaccination effort – going so far as creating a cottage industry of producing fake vaccination cards – than the Government has invested in persuading the population of the value and importance of vaccination.

While child cases in schools were inevitable with the full reopening of the education system, the Education Ministry's monitoring of the execution and adherence to procedures has fallen far behind the lived reality.

TTUTA Tobago officer Bradon Roberts called out the THA Division of Health on May 4 for its inadequate monitoring and enforcement of the protocols. National Parent Teachers Association president Kelvin David expressed similar concerns the next day regarding Trinidad.

The numbers being cited for the incidence of covid19 in schools are widely held to be suspect, given the ground-level experience in schools. There are practical issues at play, as working parents want children in school so they don't lose more education opportunities; simply can't leave them alone if they are unwell; or don’t feel they are mature enough to be left to their own devices at home.

Parents and teachers know that the circumstances of school under covid19 are unusual, dramatically so, even as their charges lapse into normal behaviour and forget rules about physical distancing.

What can be done must be done, from the classroom to the executive suites of state education: parents educated about protecting their children through vaccination; and schools provided with the resources they need to keep their charges and staff safe.