Given the vast swathes of evidence around this that has been available for months, it's amazing that government & some experts have continuously claimed that children don't contribute significantly to transmission. https://adc.bmj.com/content/105/7/618

This denial of clear evidence has hugely impacted policy in the UK, and directly led us to exactly where we are now - needing to move schools to remote teaching. Had we made schools safer over the many months we had to do this, we may well not be here.

Paradoxically, it's the very people who talk about children's wellbeing and the need for undisrupted education have supported narratives which have led to policies that have hugely impacted children & families & the wider community.

What is even more worrying than what's happened, is the fact that in yesterdays briefing by the PM, there was absolutely no mention of schools being made safer. It looks like we went straight from the msg that 'schools are safe' to school closures for most children.

There seems to have been no acknowledgement that schools are important for onward transmission & urgently do need to be made safer. What will happen after schools re-open? Are there any plans at all for this?

If we don't learn from these mistakes now, we never will.

And it's the children who everyone says they want to protect who will suffer the most as a result.

So this is an appeal to govt and to scientists - please acknowledge past failures, and let's move forward and ensure schools are really safe. Or at least much safer.

Sorry, error in earlier tweet discussing transmissibility:
Transmissibility studies look at how often children get infected when exposed to an 'index case'.

should be

Transmissibility studies look at how often contacts get infected when exposed to a child who is the index case.

Thanks to @JosetteSchoenma for spotting & correcting this, and apologies for getting this wrong in the thread!