Hungary should not re-open schools, molecular biologist warns

Sending back students and teachers to schools on 19 April is dangerous, Boldogkői told commercial broadcaster RTL Klub on Wednesday evening. He asked policymakers to rethink this plan.

Due to the serious pandemic situation people should be asked to be patient for another three to four weeks, and schools should not be opened until then.

The right choice would be if schools did not re-open at least that long, but probably until September

, he stressed.

Previously, he urged the government not to return to in-class learning in April yet, arguing that:

• children are not yet vaccinated
• the protection of teachers recently vaccinated or still awaiting their first dose will not build up to be at a sufficient level by then
• the UK variant poses a greater danger to children
• children will infect their parents and other relatives.

The second problem is the relatively high ratio of Hungarians that are against vaccination.

"We'll shortly get to a point where anti-vaccination will prevent the vaccination rate from growing further therefore we will not be able to get rid of the virus," warned Boldogkői.

"Anti-vaccination must be quashed! An effective motivational system should be worked out to increase the willingness to vaccinate, and its main tool should be strong authorisations for the bearers of vaccination certificates," he added. He also stressed that current legislation should be applied to the leaders of virus-skeptics and anti-vaxxers.

The UK variant is a threat not only to adults, but also to children.

All the things that we had planned for about kids in schools with this virus are really no longer applicable. We've got to take a whole new look at this issue

Leading epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm said previous plans regarding kids in schools no longer apply, and a "whole new look at the issue" is required. The Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, previously supported sending children back to school. He said the virus was not a major threat to children. Now, the situation has changed.

Please understand, this B.1.1.7 variant is a brand new ball game

, Osterholm said on NBC's Meet the Press.

"It infects kids very readily. Unlike previous strains of the virus, we didn't see children under 8th grade get infected often or they were not frequently very ill, they didn't transmit to the rest of the community."

"Anywhere you look where you see this emerging, you see that kids are playing a huge role in the transmission of this," Osterholm said. "All the things that we had planned for about kids in schools with this virus are really no longer applicable.

We've got to take a whole new look at this issue.

The UK variant is 50-100% more infectious than previous strains and causes severe disease in a much higher ratio of the cases, he said,.

This is the very characteristic of the UK variant that makes protecting students and teachers (and everyone they come into contact with) from it so difficult. By the time an infected person is diagnosed, the virus has been transmitted to others.

The UK variant is in 100% of the samples in Hungary. This means that schools can become hotspots, and this new variant is more dangerous to children. "There are two or three times as many kids in hospital than in earlier stages of the pandemic," György Velkey, general director at Bethesda Children's Hospital, told ATV. He also said that due to adverse reactions children also require mechanical ventilation, but so far they have managed to save everyone.

Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller has also admitted the other day that coronavirus is rampant also among young people.

Cover photo: Getty Images