‘School is safe’ myth blown apart by new PHE data – but no acknowledgment or admission from Tories or Labour front bench
New data from Public Health England (PHE) have blown apart the myth – stubbornly clung to by both the Tories and Labour’s leadership – that ‘school is safe’.
The figures show that of new infections last week, the biggest group affected was girls aged 10-19 – and boys of the same age were the fourth-largest group. Younger children were reported at low levels – but with young children likely to be asymptomatic in a vast majority of cases and testing only being done on symptomatic children – and in a huge number of cases not even then – the real numbers of younger children affected is likely to rival the high rate among their older siblings.
The numbers show beyond reasonable doubt that schools and universities are the main driver of the second wave – as even the government’s own scientists warned. Yet the Tories continue to pursue the hospitality industry as if that was the engine room of the pandemic and are obstinately refusing to even consider calls for schools to be closed again.
As long as they continue to do so, no efforts to get on top of the second wave have a hope of success.
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