Specialist doctor’s disbelief at school inaction

A Hobart doctor who has withdrawn his two school-aged children from classes because of the coronavirus pandemic says he cannot understand the rationale of keeping schools open.

A HOBART doctor who has withdrawn his two school-aged children from classes because of the coronavirus pandemic says he cannot understand the rationale of keeping schools open.

Benoj Varghese, who works as a specialist in the public and private health systems, took his children Aaron, 11, and Eliza, 6, out of school two weeks ago.

They attend The Hutchins School and St Michael’s Collegiate in Hobart. It was Eliza’s birthday yesterday but a party to celebrate the occasion was cancelled for social distancing reasons.

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His youngest child, Grace, is not yet at school.

“I’m not a public health expert. I’m not an epidemiologist, but as a doctor and as a parent, I’ve seen my children bring numerous coughs, gastro and all sorts of infections home,’’ Dr Varghese said.

“I struggle to understand how infection can be prevented if kids go to school.

“I can’t understand the rationale behind that and as a parent I’m concerned they will pick it up from school and bring it home.

“My father and my wife Nisha’s parents are visiting us from India at the moment and they are all about 70.

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“They all have multiple medical issues and my concern is not so much for the kids or for me, but what might happen if my parents or in-laws pick up something.”

Dr Varghese said he had no hesitation in keeping his children at home to play his part in a community effort to “flatten the curve” and reduce transmission of COVID-19.

State and federal governments have said advice from health experts was that closing schools was not necessary despite the growing number of cases of the virus.

Premier Peter Gutwein said the Australian Health Principal Protection Committee’s advice was that there was a lack of evidence of significant coronavirus cases in children and lack of reported spreading of the disease in schools.

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But many parents are choosing to keep their children home, with Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff telling parliament there was a 64 per cent attendance rate in the public education system on Monday.

On the same day last year, that figure was 88 per cent.

Yesterday, St Michael’s Collegiate and The Friends’ School announced they would transition to online learning only.

Collegiate will fully transition to online learning from tomorrow, while Friends’ will make the full transition by Monday, with final preparations taking place over the coming days.