Over the past two years, the issue of masks at school has been much debated, and the various political forces have repeatedly mentioned it in their communication campaigns. Even today discussions continue, but if in the most acute phases of the pandemic it was possible to use certain indicators on the progress of the pandemic, such as the number of infections and the Rt index, today it is difficult to find effective measures on which to base a possible new protocol. For this reason, the most likely option is that we will leave in September without masks, and any subsequent changes will be announced and implemented as the epidemiological picture changes.
Assuming that masks actually stop being mandatory, it will bea>come even more important to ensure efficient air exchange, so that the chances of infection among students are minimized. However, as the Ordinary of Hygiene at Cattolica and consultant to the Minister of Health Walter Ricciardi points out, "it appears that the schools are not equipped". A campaign to equip institutes with new air exchange systems should have been started a long time ago, but at the moment it seems that hardly anyone has started. Even the contracting authorities that should have identified the products to be purchased to make the environments safer have not been identified by the ministries, and the process is therefore blocked. The masks at school will therefore probably be removed, but several doubts about the safety of the infection remain.