Health Minister Krista Kiuru's (SDP) call for remote learning in Finnish schools continues to draw criticism, most recently from Tea Nieminen, an infectious disease specialist at the New Children's Hospital of the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS).
Last week, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health proposed that the spring term in Finnish schools should begin with a period of remote learning—a suggestion that has drawn a good deal of criticism. The recommendation also prompted 10 senior infectious disease specialists to publish an open letter calling for schools to remain open.
The ministry argued that between 10 to 30 percent of adults who are infected by the coronavirus develop long Covid symptoms. It also suggested that one out of 50 children infected with the virus will develop prolonged symptoms.
"Are we prepared to be responsible for thousands of long Covid cases in kids?" Kiuru asked at the time.
Nieminen was not impressed by Kiuru's statement.
"The aim of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health may have been to increase people's crisis awareness, but it left the impression that the goal was to frighten people," Nieminen said.
Immunology professor and member of the ministry's long Covid working group, Mika Rämet, said the figures presented by the ministry last week were an estimate.
Rämet told Yle it's difficult to diagnose long Covid in children, noting there were only around 20 studies on the topic, many drawing contradicting conclusions.
That said, Nieminen has harshly criticised the suggestion that one in 50 kids comes down with long Covid. She noted that long Covid studies in children were problematic for a number of reasons, including great age variances and how the studies defined symptoms.
"The research data is not of high quality and many of the studies cannot be considered scientifically reliable," she said, adding that the New Children's Hospital in Helsinki's Töölö district has seen fewer than ten pediatric long Covid cases since the pandemic began.
"You can't say that one in 50 kids with coronavirus develops long Covid and then at the same time say that it's so rare that there's no follow-up data. If the incidence really was at that level, there would be a lot of international research on it," Nieminen explained.