It is now a must for parents to provide a medical certificate that their child is no longer sick after reporting absent because of illness. The absence itself must also be covered by a medical certificate. Double whammy!

Medically speaking this is sheer stupidity, unless you make the child undergo a battery of tests few families can afford. The genius who came up with this idea has not realised what financial problems he/she is creating for families of two or three children. Medically speaking it will not preclude any child from passing on any infection he/she may be a carrier of.

I am sure this has come about so it will be shown that care is being taken not to spread the swine flu. Now swine flu has proved to be a mild form of influenza from which 99.9% of those affected recover after a few days. Do we know how many hundreds have had this virus and felt none the worse for it? True they might have passed it on. But would a medical certificate have prevented that? Please let us consider the plight of those who can ill afford the medicine for their sick children let alone the extra medical certificate. Have a heart please.

This is a case where the shackled donkey is pestered by flies, as the Maltese adage goes.