Boris Johnson has announced a plea to parents to send their children back to the classroom when schools open next month.
The Prime Minister said the danger of contracting coronavirus in schools is quite small, and that students face more imposing harm by remaining to stay at home.
Numerous students in England have not been to school since March when schools were shut except to look after vulnerable children and those of keyworkers.
Boris Johnson said that he had previously talked about the moral duty to reopen schools to all pupils safely, and would like to praise the school staff who’ve spent the summer months making classrooms COVID secure in preparation for a full return in September.
He said that they’d always been guided by their scientific and medical experts and that they know far more about coronavirus than they did earlier this year and that the Chief Medical Officer has said, the risk of getting COVID 19 in school is quite small and it’s far more damaging for a child’s development and their health and well being to be away from school any longer.
And that was why it was essential that children are brought back into the classroom to learn and be with their friends and that nothing would have a greater impact on the life chances of children than returning to school.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the Government needs to show it governs with a steadfast hand, based on a clear strategy and message.
He added that this battle over schools reopening must see the Prime Minister in the lead, galvanising his inner Churchill.
Boris Johnson’s comments came after the UK’s chief medical officers issued a joint statement seeking to reassure parents that it was safe to send their children back to school.
They said that very few if any children and teenagers would come to long term harm from the virus solely by attending school, while there was a certainty of harm from not returning.
A Public Health England (PHE) analysis, published on Sunday said that they found there were 67 single confirmed cases, four co-primary cases (two or more linked cases diagnosed at the same time) and 30 outbreaks of COVID 19 in schools during June.
And said that the preponderance of cases linked to outbreaks was in staff and warned that school staff needed to be more alert for exposure outside the school setting to protect themselves, their families and the educational environment.
However, parents have been taking their children on holiday and days out during the school holidays, could they not bring the virus into the school setting?
Staff at the schools have been working extremely hard to make classrooms as safe as possible, and it’s essential that children don’t go back to school with the virus.
However, outside they’re not confined inside a congested classroom during the summer holidays and being cooped up has proven to pass higher transmission to others.
Let’s face it, schools are renowned for endless colds, stomach viruses et cetera that spread quickly amongst the children and staff, although we must also realise that children can’t stay off school indefinitely.
Although some parents might not want to send their children back to school because the fact is that as soon as flu season is upon us, so will mandatory testing as most primary school children get sick through October to February, and will we be allowed to refuse the testing?
Socialising at school will be at an absolute minimum and once one bubble is infected with a cold they will all need to be tested and quarantined along with anyone who lives in the household, and then mandatory testing will lead to mandatory vaccinations for a virus with a 0.002 per cent mortality rate.
Parents are already packing the lunches!
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