It’s been revealed that the Prime Minister is planning an advertising campaign to inform teachers and parents about coronavirus symptoms.
The Government has encountered intense backlash over the test and trace system which has seen those needing tests sent hundreds of miles and told to join lengthy queues at some testing centres while others stand empty.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called on Health Secretary Matt Hancock to apologise for what has transpired, but Matt Hancock told Sophy Ridge on Sky News that he would not.
He said no and that he firmly and emphatically supports his team who have done an outstanding job at building capacity.
As the testing debate persists, the Government’s ad campaign will hope to stop pupils with runny noses and colds being sent home and told to get a test and according to a news outlet, Boris Johnson’s aides are working on the public information campaign in a bid to prevent the system being swamped.
The newspaper also claims rationing plans for coronavirus tests in England will prioritise teachers.
The testing chaos has been blamed on a mad rush by parents needlessly seeking COVID tests for children with common colds.
Generally, coughs and colds spike every September when children head back to the classroom and become even more common during the winter, but a No 10 source told a news outlet that the deluge in demand for tests was due in part by people not understanding when they should and shouldn’t get a test.
The source said, for example, whole classes of children and their families have been sent for tests after one positive case, which is mad and that loads of children get the sniffles in the autumn, the difference now is they’re all being kept off school and trying to get coronavirus tests.
Public health experts echoed the sentiments and Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, said the same pattern of over-testing was evident in Scotland, where schools returned about a fortnight before those south of the border.
And that it was evident from the Scottish example that a bunch of unnecessary tests were taken up by parents for their children and the same thing has occurred in England and Wales.
Dido Harding, head of NHS Test and Trace, informed MPs that there had been a significantly marked upsurge in the number of young children being tested, a doubling of children under 17 being tested, with even more considerable peaks in those aged five to nine years old and according to some reports, more than 300 schools had sent either some or all students home after reported or suspected cases.
However, if the Government had half a brain they would realise that children will feign a cough or a cold at school. Now there will be numerous children who will endeavour to tell their parents they have COVID when all they had was a cold so they can get out of going to school when they should be told under no uncertain terms to get up and go to school and to stop the silliness, and it’s just a pity that the Government, teachers and parents don’t have simple common sense.
However, this is another manipulation and this is not a symptom that the Government should be advertising, but then I don’t suppose anyone would take the virus that seriously, not that many do anyhow.
If a child has a sore throat and a cough it doesn’t immediately mean that they have coronavirus, but our Government are making us totally irrational and it’s making numerous people panic. This Government started this fire and the media fanned the flames and they frightened people to death, so it’s no wonder people are rushing out for tests.
