Read on Twitter
1. If this is true, it is a failure of epic proportions. This isn’t expenses fiddling or usual political shenanigans - lives are very much at risk because of this particular instance of government incompetence. https://twitter.com/billhanage/status/1304961089143271426
2. SAGE advised the government to phase the return of pupils. NERVTAG, DELVE & the WHO recommended the use of masks throughout the school day. Public health teams around the world have recommended approaches to open schools safely. This government has listened to no one. https://twitter.com/adamhamdy/status/1304741200189108224
3. Instead, it has based its guidance to schools on outdated assumptions about close contact droplets and fomite transmission, when the rest of the world has moved on. https://twitter.com/adamhamdy/status/1304120806943928329
4. The government has tried to convince parents this is a magic virus children don’t transmit.
Wrong again. https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1304820085735989253
Wrong again. https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1304820085735989253
5. Children might not be at high risk of dying, but as with any viral infection, there is a risk #SARSCoV2 will cause complications. Diabetes is one such complication. https://twitter.com/adamhamdy/status/1304913937549361152
6. There are also increasing reports of Long Covid among children, and we don’t really understand this condition or what’s causing it. We should be seeking to minimise transmission in children until we know more. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-happens-when-childrens-covid-19-symptoms-wont-go-away-180975761/
7. This was entirely foreseeable. There is a faction within the Conservative party that believes the Swedish model of herd immunity through mass death is the way to go. Others disagree, so there is a battle that manifests itself as schizophrenic public health policy.
8. These herd immunity types have not realised what the numerous confirmed cases of short interval reinfection mean for the herd immunity approach. We don’t yet know what the population immunity profile looks like for this virus. https://twitter.com/adamhamdy/status/1303372386868301832
9. Putting millions of children and adults into sustained daily contact during a pandemic of an airborne, highly contagious virus that causes high mortality and morbidity relative to flu was always going to be risky. Without effective testing, it is reckless in extreme.
10. The medical officers of the United Kingdom all told us it was safe to send 10.8 million children back to school in this manner. I believe we should consider this their resignation letter. https://twitter.com/adamhamdy/status/1304010738479046656
11. They have stood alongside a government that has delivered one of the worst public health responses in the world and given it a thin veneer of scientific and medical credibility.
12. And what of this serially inept government? Without a Conservative leadership contest or street revolution, we’re stuck with this Prime Minister for a while. But we don’t have to be stuck with these ministers.
13. The fact no minister has been sacked for the various education and public health fiascos tells me the Prime Minister loves the stench of failure around him. Perhaps because weak incompetents are more malleable than those who are capable?
14. Keir Starmer joined the government in calling for children to go back to school. Hopefully he’s learned a valuable lesson. Until this government embraces a #ZeroCovid policy, the opposition should challenge and press at every turn.
15. So, what can we do? I don’t think anyone should send their child back to school until the testing system works. We will only add to the problem. If your personal circumstances mean you have to send your child back to school, get them a mask.
16. Teachers also need to wear masks. Enough of this anti-science nonsense. Until the government can provide its evidence that shows masks negatively impact teaching, public health must come first. https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1304855163962888197
17. I hope @cyclingkev, @MaryBoustedNEU and other union leaders will provide guidance to their members on how to protect themselves. For teachers & staff in vulnerable categories this will quite literally be a life or death issue. People still have the right to a safe workplace. https://twitter.com/thealiceroberts/status/1304920759882702848
18. Me? It wasn’t how I was expecting to spend my book royalties, but my wife and I have already instructed lawyers to commence judicial review proceedings against the Department for Education. We don’t believe its guidelines are anywhere near world-beating 
19. And after writing letters and lobbying, it’s the only remaining route left to us to try to bring about change and raise standards for our children.
20. If schools are to remain open during cold and flu season without becoming vectors for a massive wave of sustained illness, we need our government to do much better than this.
