Reducing inequities: a defense of the reopening of schools in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Coelho Neto, Rogerio Luz
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Medicina de Família e Comunidade (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.rbmfc.org.br/rbmfc/article/view/2695
• topic: School Health Promotion; Social Vulnerability; COVID-19; Promoción de la Salud en el Ambiente Escolar; Vulnerabilidad Social; COVID-19; Promoção da Saúde em Ambiente Escolar; Vulnerabilidade Social; COVID-19

This article defends the reopening of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Due to the advancement of knowledge about the pandemic, we now know that children are less infected and less infectious than adults with the SARS-Cov-2 virus. School closure as the only form of social distancing does not seem to be effective in reducing community transmission, nor in flattening the curve of beds or ICU usage by COVID-19. It would make sense if school closure was associated with other forms of mitigating the transmission and if these were encouraged by objective and clear communication by government officials. As this did not happen and isolation is not being followed by the general population, the closing of schools only brings harm to children, especially the most vulnerable. This article concludes that protocols for safe and informed reopening of schools should be considered immediately.