Read on Twitter
The Govt want us to believe that schools are safe but it's not true. They're not safe for kids, who can get Covid, some badly or long Covid. They're not safe for families - children are the most likely index case once schools are open. 
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@BylineTimes https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/16/route-out-of-lockdown-must-involve-making-schools-safe/
/1@BylineTimes https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/16/route-out-of-lockdown-must-involve-making-schools-safe/
Schools are the only public environment largely free of Covid restrictions. Most buildings don't allow for social distancing. Children are told *not* to wear masks in class. They can eat in unventilated canteens in bubbles of up to 300, without masks or social distancing. /2
This wouldn't matter if kids couldn't get Covid - but they're no less immune than anyone else. /3 https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1346362204900257795?s=20
Some become seriously ill, some - likely in the 10s of thousands in the UK - get Long Covid. Many of those with Long Covid are getting worse not better. Sadly hospital admissions of kids with Covid are going up. /4
@BylineTimes https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/05/the-hidden-plight-of-long-covid-children/
@BylineTimes https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/05/the-hidden-plight-of-long-covid-children/
Some kids die from multisystem inflammatory syndrome caused by Covid. We don't know the long term impact of Covid on adults or children. We shouldn't expose children to a virus we don't know the long term impacts of - even if they get it mildly now. /5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahcampbell/2021/12/28/the-importance-of-protecting-children-from-the-long-term-impacts-of-covid-19/?sh=38c81442458e
Keeping children Covid-free becomes more important when their role in transmitting it to family members becomes clear. Closing schools is the 2nd most effective measure to restrict wider infection. /6 https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1346362176035020800?s=20
Once schools are open primary age are 2x more likely, and secondary age 7x more likely, than adults to be the index case in any household. /7 https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357924001394401281?s=20
The understandable focus on deaths has blinded us to the long term impacts of Covid on survivors. We're still discovering what impacts will be - but what we know isn't good. /8 https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahcampbell/2021/12/28/the-importance-of-protecting-children-from-the-long-term-impacts-of-covid-19/?sh=38c81442458e
Scientists fear that Covid will behave similarly to other coronaviruses, which can lead to autoimmune diseases, respiratory problems, inflammation of the heart muscle and a host of other complaints. We need to protect children from a disease that could be with them for life. /9
Boris Johnson regularly insists that schools are safe - either out of ignorance or because he doesn't want to contend with the measures that would be needed to make them safe. Here he is on 3 January arguing kids should be in school. /10 https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-boris-johnson-insists-schools-are-safe-and-children-should-attend-tomorrow-12178155
Few argue that schools should remain closed - but many parents want schools made safe before they open. They want masks at all times, social distancing, ventilation and air filters, germicidal UV light in air filters or upper air UV ceiling light. /11
Lunchtimes are a key concern, with tens or hundreds of pupils sitting unmasked in unventilated halls. There are solutions - staggered lunchtimes, shorter schools days, outside tents for lunch... /12 https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357928963318964224?s=20
The one thing there is no easy solution for is social distancing. Schools just weren't built for it. Staggered school days may be the only solution - morning / afternoon shifts, or some days at home vs days in school. Not ideal but better than Covid. /13
No one wants schools closed. But nor do we want the pandemic to go on forever, and until schools are made safe and many more people in the UK and globally vaccinated opening them is a recipe for disaster. Zero Covid is the only safe strategy. /14 https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1357924798693838849
As things stand we're going to open schools despite all the evidence that Covid spreads easily indoors - even more true with the Kent variant (and likely coming variants) - and schools' central role in transmission. /15 https://twitter.com/mdbuckley/status/1361576731652608001?s=20
As things stand Johnson wants to open schools even though he accepts that doing so is likely to push R back over one. /16 https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/1360891186060414976?s=20
He's simultaneously claiming that schools are safe while admitting that opening them will push R back over one - not safe for kids or adults, and likely to push us back into lockdown and closed schools sooner or later. /17
The good news is that we do not have to choose between opening schools and keeping them closed. We have options that would enable us to open them safely â we just need to use them. /18
@BylineTimes https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/16/route-out-of-lockdown-must-involve-making-schools-safe/
@BylineTimes https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/16/route-out-of-lockdown-must-involve-making-schools-safe/
To follow - I didnât realise that supposed âparentsâ group @UsforThemUK, which calls for schools to open, gets help from a Tory lobbyist. https://bylinetimes.com/2021/01/21/parents-campaign-against-school-closures-receives-pr-support-from-boris-johnson-advisor/
Obviously there are strong arguments to get schools open - education, vulnerable kids, mental health... - but they should only open once made safe.
More worrying news re kids getting Long Covid. If >10% - or anything close to that - get Long Covid we need to seriously reconsider our opening up strategy and vaccinations, and make schools safe. https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1361718088857579520?s=20
