A key SAGE adviser said that schools may end up having to close if infection rates continue rising.
Professor Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said schools would stay open during the extreme lockdown, but added that because they have delayed the onset of the lockdown, it makes keeping schools open harder.
And that if the transmission in secondary schools continues to grow that may have to be reconsidered in the next four weeks.
Obviously, this isn’t the student’s fault, but there is now a concern about their futures and it’s extremely sad indeed.
There is no fault here, we have a pandemic and we all have to follow the rules and it’s impacting everyone, no matter their age, but the rate of infections in secondary schools is growing rapidly as is in the general population.
And lockdown might seem extremely selfish to the young and it might seem unjust, but we need to do what needs to be done.
Students will now effectively be locked in for four weeks with no pubs open et cetera and there will be numerous older students having house parties where this virus will spread further.
There doesn’t seem to be an answer, but perhaps opening up universities was now in hindsight the wrong decision. However, sending two million students, many of which will be carrying COVID 19 back across the country to families, parents, grandparents and siblings will cause a spike and we need to get the transmission rates lower before we start pushing for the mass migration of millions of students.
And they seem to be discouraging mask-wearing in school because they assert that hundreds of these children that are in cramped spaces are in a bubble, but then supporting those in need isn’t the style of the Government – killing thousands meaninglessly does seem to be.
The scientists on SAGE advise the Government, but it’s become increasingly evident that our politicians don’t have to take that advice, and have at times rejected it and had the crisis been addressed earlier and more effectively by the Government, we might not be in this alarming situation now.
In the meantime, we the ordinary people are paying the price of our Government’s lack of judgement and skewed priorities.
Unfortunately, we’re now seeing a lot of suicide rates, mental illness, domestic abuse, people forgoing medical treatment, which killed a lot of people last time, wanton destruction of livelihoods and the inescapable fiscal tradeoffs to finance all of the handouts et cetera.
And now we’re in lockdown for four weeks, but if we’re honest with ourselves, it will be much longer and the Government seems to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Not everyone seems to be agreeing with one another, some want to lockdown, some don’t and believe that we should just take our chances and carry on regardless.
Sheild if you feel you need to, but those that don’t want to shield, be thoughtful and caring by wearing masks and washing your hands to protect yourself and others.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 