The looming chaos with the self-diagnostic tests, it didn't take long to come. It started with the packages received by pharmacists on Wednesday, in the spirit of «do it yourself’, after they were asked to pack thousands of individual packets themselves, is expected to continue over the weekend and culminate with the first positive tests on pupils and teachers.
Following letters of protest from students of evening high schools, mainly vocational high schools, about their initial exclusion from the free distribution of self-diagnostic tests due to their age, as the vast majority of them are adults, the Ministry of Education decided to include them in the procedure, which differs from the one followed for day high school students.
«In the Evening High Schools throughout the country, direct distribution to schools was foreseen for the first test. The tests will be in the schools until Saturday 10/4 and students will get them from the schools over the weekend, following the instructions of the school principals,» the ministry says.
In a television appearance (SKAI), the Deputy Minister responsible Zetta Makri clarified that the principals are the ones who will procure and distribute the tests. In short, the responsibility for organising the process falls on school principals, who are called upon to be in schools on Saturday to distribute the individual kits to some 30 000 pupils and at least 3 000 teachers, under tight deadlines and with the risk of overcrowding being almost unavoidable.
The above scene, the Deputy Minister of Education described it as «a sample of full organization» and proof of «the additional interest of the Ministry» for the students of evening high schools.
They will pay
And while the government announced the double self-diagnostic tests every week for students and teachers as a safeguard for the uninterrupted operation of schools, the Vice President of the Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Association, Yannis Dagres, complaining that the system is designed to accept only one test per week per social security number.
As he told avgi.gr: «The only possible alternative is the beneficiary is forced to pay for the second test out of his own pocket, whether he wants to or not». Asked what happens in case someone needs to repeat the test because the result will not be valid, Mr. Dagres stressed that «unfortunately there is no provision for the case that a citizen conducts the test incorrectly.
The system has no configuration or provision for this situation either, irrespective of whether there is a high probability of mistakes, reasonable and human, by many citizens who for the first time in their lives are asked to handle sensitive medical self-testing components, normally intended for rapid, individual screening, but always with the supervision or direct involvement of a health scientist, who will normally bear the responsibility for the procedure», stating at the same time that there is a lack of self-diagnostic tests.
At the same time, OIF complains that the teachers of private schools are excluded from the platform for the self-tests because they have not passed their AMKA in the information system myschool under the responsibility of the Ministry. «Due to the agreement between the leadership of the Ministry of Education and the school principals, there is “tolerance” in checking the accuracy of the data that private schools enter in the system.
This, of course, is being done, so that some crafty school principals can “hide” undeclared teachers, undeclared departments, etc. for tax avoidance purposes. However, the victims of the defiant tolerance of the leadership of the Ministry and the delinquent activity of some private schools are the lives, health and safety of thousands of teachers, students and their families and members of the wider community,» the OIF statement said, warning of a strike on Monday in those private high schools that do not register the teachers' AMKA.
However, the biggest fiasco is still ahead of us and relates to what is foreseen in case of a positive test. The huge gaps, both in the planning of the reopening of high schools and in the protocol of actions in case of a positive result in a student or teacher, identifies Professor Athina Linou, Professor of Epidemiology.
The problem
«What will happen during the time when one self-test has come back positive, until we have the result of the second test?» she commented (OPEN), while expressing concern that the potential case would be confused for days with the other children in his class.
In fact, the prescribed procedure states that in the event of a positive self-test, the department will continue to operate normally, pending the result of a retest conducted in a public structure, and that only if the second test is positive, the EODY protocol for closing the class or the whole school will be followed.
Professor Ath. Linou disagrees with the above practice, arguing that the operation of the department should be suspended immediately and all children in the class should be tested. «This would add security and also give a quick insight and experience on how reliable the home-based tests are,» she said.
Meanwhile, the government itself, which promotes self-diagnostic tests as the measure to ensure the operation of schools, implicitly admits their ineffectiveness, since in the event of a positive test, the person has to take a repeat test in a health facility in order to determine whether or not he or she is actually ill.
In a nutshell, self-diagnostic tests, or even the way they will be carried out by non-qualified health personnel, cannot be considered reliable. Moreover, it seems to ignore the fact that the wait for an appointment in a public facility can be as long as a week. Until then, will the classmates of the possible case be confused daily in the classrooms? The answer, unfortunately, is yes.
