No one has ever offered any explanation for why kids had to stop going to school that made sense. Kids are practically unable to suffer from complications from the virus (which is practically the flu), and getting infected with it could help the population at large by kick-starting the herd immunity process.
If the argument was that there is a risk of kids interacting with the elderly, it would have been much cheaper and much better for society to just quarantine the elderly in some kind of special facility.
We know that virtually all coronavirus deaths are very old, sick people.
Instead of destroying the economy, most jobs, and people’s mental health, we could have just quarantined the small group of people that were at risk.
The chaos surrounding secondary schools is set to continue next year as the coronavirus wreaks havoc with GCSEs and A-levels.
Exams will likely be impacted next summer due to some colleges in England not opening properly until January.
Regulator Ofqual has taken the drastic step of creating contingency plans for next year’s intake as students face months out of lessons.
Two ideas being touted are to move exams from May to July or to renew this year’s emergency marking system.
It comes as a government adviser warned missing education was more dangerous for pupils than coronavirus.
Dr Gavin Morgan, who sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), which advises the government’s response to coronavirus, said keeping children out of class was ‘100 per cent worse’ for them than the killer bug.
Teaching unions admitted thousands of secondary school students will only be back in class part-time from September due to the PM’s advice on social distancing.
Some will have to stay working from home and many may be forced to do the same when clusters of Covid-19 break out.
Headteachers last week informed parents their children may face a further six months out of the classroom.
Headmaster Andrew Halls from the private King’s College School in Wimbledon, south-west London, outlined the new reality for families in a letter.
‘I would love to believe that the coronavirus will soon pack its suitcase and fly to Mars, but this seems improbable,’ he said according to the Sunday Times.
He added: ‘Some children, though it is impossible to say what proportion, may not be back in school until January 2021.
‘Heads are now discussing whether GCSE and A-levels will be awarded in the same way as this summer.’
We’ve been telling you this since the whole thing started: the idea of our rulers isn’t to eventually “lift” the lockdown and give people back their freedoms, but to make the house arrest lifestyle the “New Normal.”
Viruses won’t stop existing just because people stay home, and allowing the government to set this precedent of “when there’s a virus, there’s no freedom” was a mistake. From now on, they can just say that there’s a virus every time they want to take even more of your rights away.
Sage expert Dr Morgan noted the health impact on children from Covid-19 is ‘minuscule’, while a long time without learning would devastate their development.
The expert in education psychology at University College London told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘We know they have a less challenging disease if they do pick it up. The impact on children is minuscule in terms of their health.’
‘We know how important play is for children’s development. If they can’t play with their friends, their mental health is going to suffer.
‘Children may well have developed secure attachment with teachers and they have been denied access to them.’
Ahead of the phased return of pupils to some schools, Sage last month published the advice it had given the government.
Among the evidence cited was that children will be damaged for the rest of their life if they remain in lockdown, with their physical and mental well being impacted.
But it was worth it, because grandma is alive — and we wouldn’t want grandma to die after she lived her whole life and reached old age, even if it meant destroying the lives of our kids.