The high error rate in the corona throat tests for daycare children (“lollipop tests”) unsettles Berlin parents’ committees. The strategy of also sending contact persons of infected people to the daycare center on the basis of these tests (“test-to-stay”) is classified by the state and district parents’ committees as “unsustainable” under the current conditions, it said on Friday in a message from the State Parents’ Committee for Daycare Centers (LEAK).
The LEAK referred to the situation center of the Robert Koch Institute, according to which “test-to-stay” requires wearing a mask, which is not possible at the daycare centers.
“For the benefit of our children”, transparent procedures and communication between the Senate administration and parents must be maintained and ways through the pandemic must be found, was the appeal of the parents’ board. Parents must be empowered to make an informed decision about a potential risk to their children’s health. The common goal remains to maintain access to the day care centers – but in a “responsible manner”.
These are the central demands of the parent committees
- Transparent communication.
- Clearly state the risk of infection through “test to stay” without masks.
- Critical view of the “lollipop tests” due to low accuracy and possibly “adjust”.
- For the time being at least a nationwide supply of the lollipop tests.
The deputy chairwoman of LEAK, Anja Kettgen-Hahn, told the Tagesspiegel on Friday evening that the parents’ committee had asked the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) directly for an assessment. The RKI then confirmed again that the “test-to-stay” procedure requires the “continuous and correct wearing of masks” – both for the infected person and for contact persons.
In other words: The Senate administration is introducing a procedure that does not apply to the requirements in daycare centers, since no masks are worn there.
“The associated risk of infection, which is much higher than in the school setting, is simply not communicated by the Senate Administration,” LEAK complains. Parents would be “weighed in a false sense of security”. Because the main difference to the daycare setting is the wearing of masks by schoolchildren.
This is particularly irresponsible in a situation in which parents, after two years with limited childcare options, “of course welcome any improvement in this situation, both for their children and for themselves”.
However, if parents are asked to make an informed decision about whether to voluntarily send their child to quarantine or to allow them to participate in the “test-to-stay” procedure, such “enormous risk factors must be disclosed and communicated honestly”.
Parents complain about contradictions between medical officers and the Robert Koch Institute
The LEAK therefore calls for clarification by the Senate, which should not be limited to a “succinct reference to the assessment of the medical officers” that is “clearly contrary to the scientific assessment of the RKI”.
But not only the missing masks distinguish the daycare centers from the schools, but also the quality of the test, the LEAK notes with reference to “numerous reports about lollipop tests that remained falsely negative and a PCR test was still positive”. . These are not isolated cases. There is a “large accumulation of reports about symptomatic children whose tests do not work or only work two to three days after the onset of symptoms and thus after the risk of infection already exists”.
The LEAK refers – like the Tagesspiegel – to the list of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, according to which the lollipop tests used are only very reliable with a high virus load. With a low viral load, however, the detection rate is less than 40 percent.
Introducing a “test-to-stay” strategy with such tests with a lack of sensitivity and without masks raises the question “whether the Senate is actually fulfilling its duty to protect the children or whether this urgently needs to be adjusted in a legally compliant manner”.
To make matters worse, the lollipop tests are not even available across the board: In the last LEAK meeting on February 7th, his “numerous daycare centers” were reported that still had no lollipop tests available.
This last complaint should have largely been resolved in the meantime: the youth administration reports that millions of tests have been purchased that could be picked up in the youth welfare offices.
“Very many” quarantines would be the alternative – who wants that?
With regard to the low reliability of the tests, Roland Kern from the umbrella organization of children’s and school shops said that so many fault reports had been received “that it went beyond the individual case status”. However, you have to put the “30 to 40 reports” in relation to 850 daycare centers with thousands of children in the DaKS.
Regarding the reliability of the lollipop tests, one can understand the fears of parents and educators, but the tests are “in the middle” in terms of sensitivity. Incidentally, the medical officers made a conscious decision to allow infections to a limited extent with the “test-to-stay” method. Children and educators are “a little at the mercy of that”. That has to be said honestly. However, according to Kern, a higher protection against infection would have had “a lot of chain quarantines” as a price. You have to be honest about that too.
The Senate Department for Youth recalled on Friday that LEAK had long been vehemently demanding the introduction of lollipop tests at Berlin daycare centers. Incidentally, the “test to stay” procedure was introduced by the health authorities. Wearing a mask in the daycare center is not child-friendly for small children and is also not easy to implement.
