Huge and long-term impacts on tens of thousands of children resulting from government policy and lack of mitigations
The British Medical Journal has published an opinion piece ‘calling out’ the Tories for the ‘childism’ – the reckless and even intentional promotion of infection in children – of the government’s pandemic policies.
Public health Professor Nisreen Alwan highlights:
- the Tories allowing the Covid virus to spread ‘uncontrollably’ in schoolchildren
- the ‘institutional prejudice and systemic injustice’ of Tory policies
- that Covid infection rates are now ‘by far’ higher among children of all ages than in the general population, followed by those in the parental age group
- that hospitalisation rates among children have risen by 74% since January – the peak of the second wave of the pandemic
- that more than 200,000 children are missing school because coronavirus on any given day – with well over 100,000 confirmed infections
- that at least 11,000 UK children aged 2-16yrs have been suffering with ‘long Covid’ for at least a full year – with 29,000 taking more than three months to recover
Prof Alwan then asks:
Are such rates of coronavirus infection in the young acceptable? This is a virus that is constantly evolving into new variants and which results in prolonged ill health in some of those infected. The latest UK figures from the ONS on long covid released on 7 October 2021 estimate that 11 000 children aged 2-16 have it for at least a year from the date of confirmed or probable infection, with 29 000 estimated not to have recovered at least 12 weeks after onset. This equates to about one in 1000 children out of all those aged 2-11 years living in private households in the UK and five in 1000 out of 12–16-year-olds.
Debate around the definition and methods of estimation of long covid is valid, but it must not detract from the fact that a proportion of children are not recovering after infection, and the higher the community infection rate, the higher the number of children experiencing longer term effects. Long covid does not only affect children’s physical health, but also disrupts their education, causes social isolation, and may lead to declining mental health—all of which are likely to contribute to longer term inequalities. We need to stop propagating a false dichotomy that pitches children’s education and wellbeing against efforts to reduce community transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Socioeconomic and demographic disadvantage must not be compounded with further health inequalities due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Alwans also points out that:
childism may also be at play when it comes to debates on covid-19 vaccines. They point out that we must be wary of calls to deprioritise children for vaccines when they betray a bias towards adults in their reasoning. For example, the argument that immunity after infection may be sufficient in children, while adults are recommended to get vaccinated regardless of previous infection.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency concluded that the Pfizer/BioNTech covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective in the 12-15 age group on 4 June 2021. It was good news at the time because we had an opportunity during the summer holiday to offer teenagers the vaccine before the autumn term, when they would start mixing in schools again. However, a decision from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on universal roll-out remained eagerly awaited. Eventually, a statement on 3 September said that in JCVI’s assessment “the margin of benefit is considered too small to support universal vaccination of healthy 12 to 15 year olds.” This was when many other countries had already vaccinated millions of children in that age group. The decision to offer universal vaccination to this age group was delayed until the UK’s chief medical officers released their advice to the government on 13 September. However, currently only one dose out of the two dose vaccination course is offered universally to this age group.
She then pleads with the authorities to:
acknowledge the uncertainties around mass infection in children is not “alarmism” or a call for panic, as such concerns have been often labelled. What I am doing is rejecting the abandonment of the precautionary principle when it comes to a virus that we still know relatively little about, with emerging evidence of worrying lingering health effects. In addition, with re-infections becoming more common, the theoretical assumption that immunity after high levels of natural infection in children will end the pandemic is questionable.
Prof Alwan says that she is not calling for schools to be closed or for further lockdowns to be implemented. But she says that the government is ignoring,
effective protective measures that can be used to keep children attending school and to avoid lockdowns. In addition to the full course of vaccination, these include adequate ventilation, face masks indoors, and reduced crowding. Children have had their education disrupted, their social lives restricted, and their mental health—and sometimes safety—compromised to save adults. Now that adults are more protected, children should not be left to face mass infection with the very same virus they made sacrifices to protect adults from.
The BMJ is hardly known for its anti-Establishment leanings, yet even that publication is now saying enough is enough and demanding a change to the endangerment of the public’s and especially of children’s lives.
The Tories – and lamentably Keir Starmer’s ‘opposition’ – have long ignored clear scientific evidence that schools are key sources of transmission of the coronavirus, while the government’s scientific bodies have subordinated science to the Tories’ political and image-management priorities.
This has to stop. Closing on 200,000 people have already died needlessly under the Establishment’s disgraceful handling of the pandemic. Gambling with our children’s health and futures is criminal and unforgivable.
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Let’s not forget that in May 2020, Starmer assured Johnson that he would “have a word” with the teaching unions and tell (order) them to open up schools fully. The teachers stood fast and wisely refused. Starmer assured everyone that children didn’t get it, nor did they pass it on…..
Here is Prof Alwan’s article:
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2641
Thank you Steven for telling us about this.
Bojo & Starmer should face trial for the covid catastrophe in the UK. Bojo for being in overall charge of the “childism” which has exposed children to a previously unknown virus because desperate to keep the economy going, and Starmer for his ” no ifs, no buts ” non-opposition to this.
The longer the pandemic has continued, the more likely the emergence of a variant virulent to , and highly infectious to, children. Alwan doesn’t say this , but it is a conclusion which can be drawn from her article.
So much for Bojo’s cavalier handling of Covid19, and Starmer’s cowardly no ifs, no buts abstentionism.
Thank you Professor Alwan.
The fact Johnson did what he did was enabled with the support he got from Stamer’s Labour Party, and particularly Starmer himself. I pray they don’t find, at some future date, that kids are irreparably and permanently damaged by getting Covid in their formative years.
Apart from the fact Johnson enabled the culling of thousands of elderly people in their Care Homes, including my Mother, this would make this period in our history one of the most shameful ever. On par with the extinction of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Race and the killing of over 40m Indians during Britain’s rule in that country.
Does that mob contribute? Are they in the TUC? I honestly don’t know. I am dumb, in fact I didn’t even know that walruses could leap/commit suicide were it not for carbon cutters told me.
Excellent points BMJ and recommendations which re schools many of us on the Left have been arguing for whilst Political Lightweight Starmer & Right Wing Labour keep Stum!
When the Tories were callous against care homes many of us argued we needed to fight for these citizens who were workers once and who built society.
So now it’s time to fight for the kids, the future workers who will build the next one!
Good points BMJ and recommendations for schools which many of us on the Left have been arguing for as Political Lightweight Starmer and Right Wing Labour keep stum!
When the Tories were callous to care homes many of us on the Left argued we needed to fight for these citizens who were workers once and built society.
So now we need to fight for the kids who will build the next one!
If this is true; school Heads should be adding to the clamour!!!
It’s the silence of the media that condemns us to mass death and destruction of our society. Voices like those here are ignored if not ridiculed and dismissed. Why is that? Are they plain scared for their jobs and status? Or do they admire the ruthlessness? Yet this is one of the cruelest things ever done to a generation of kids. And done with an Etonian smirk and a wink. It must be up to parents and teachers to wipe that smirk of smug faces – unless we wait for the kids to have to do it themselves in a few years time. He did what I did for
‘He did what I should have done’ – a shameful position
I am so proud of the BMJ for daring to criticise the Government – and, by implication, the reckless Simon Stevens who facilitated NHS compliance with the atrociously dangerous and bad Covid Narrative, and the bad science that the Government is promoting.
Well done BMJ! (Mind you, The Lancet is doing us proud too in diplomatically criticising SAGE and the Government’s mis-use of science on covid and the hard promotion of untested and possibly dangerous vaccines for a not very virulent virus ( 99.6 – 99.8 pc survival rate)).
And – should anyone need a bit of a crib sheet on the offensively dangerous lies that the MSM, BBC and billionaires are pushing as “The Covid Narrative”, you’ll find it at Off-Guardian or here
Thanks
It is known now that lack of ventilation which promotes the spread and yet
did the Govt make sure schools had adequate air – flow?
On a slightly different point – I have yet to discover what extra help and access
to Education for children was provided during the vacations and at other
times.
Anecdotal evidence appears to indicate that (eg) art, music and sports
was provided by private schools only, and that as part of normal activities
during vacations.
Well said, HFMw.
Insufficient ventilation increases disease transmission. Even before ‘germ theory’ took hold, clinicians knew this (with, for example, tuberculosis). This line of reasoning convinces many to avoid the use of cheap, plastic and paper masks, a supposed “badge” of responsible citizenry atm.
querboi….Thank you for the incredibly important info that states facts in a matter of fact way forward without hyperbole or pannick
Not forgetting, this was the real reason Beccy Long- Bailey was sacked from Starmer’s Shadow Cabinet, and he took the – disgracefully, underhand – chance to slander her, as antisemitic.
She was Shadow Education Secretary, they had a real up and downer over this very subject. Him for sending children back to school – she against.
When the time comes, there is much to be investigated and enquired into.
Any fool knows that you do not send sick children whatever they are suffering from into a crowded enviroment.Basic health advice known for century’s and ignored by the Conservative and unionist party ably assisted by No “Opposition” ..Schools over the years especially in the fifties dealt with whooping cough,measles ,chicken pox ,lice,hair lice ,Flu and managed to survive with strict rules of when not to send a child to school.This is not the fiftys and the pressure on familys is much higher but nonetheless considered planning by the school’s themselves must be allowed.if we are to succeed in dealing with a virus that as been badly managed.
GM Watch…..
‘New book on COVID-19 origins was plagued by censorship’
Combining investigative journalism with scientific analysis made accessible to the layperson, this book argues that a “crime against global health” has been committed by certain entities and individuals, starting with the Chinese government and including scientists and institutions in the West…..
….. the book concludes that there is “overwhelming” evidence that the virus was genetically engineered for enhanced infectivity in gain-of-function experiments and then escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.
https://gmwatch.org/en/news/latest-news/19923
PS There’s also a rather scary article listed on their site entitled ‘COVID-19 vaccines in lettuce and spinach?’
I came across the following book just after it was published and was intending to buy a kindle edition of it (as the hard copy was about four times as much), but I thought I’d read the free sample first. Anyway, it was probably a couple of weeks later – having finally finished reading the free sample – that I went to purchase a copy only to find that the kindle edition was now unavailable, and there was an amazon message saying ‘Item Under Review’. That must have been about three months ago now and it’s STILL under review. And I have a sneaky feeling it’s gonna remain ‘Under Review’ permanently!
Anyhow, from what I read in the free sample it sounds like a very interesting and enlightening book.
‘Pseudopandemic: New Normal Technocracy’
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pseudopandemic-Normal-Technocracy-Iain-Davis-ebook/dp/B097TRX32Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top
PS I just this moment checked and the book in the gmwatch article I linked to earlier IS available in all editions. At the moment anyway!
Thanks Allan Howard. Perhaps the reason the book is now available has something to do with the wonderful indeperndent press i.e. (NOT the billionaires’ MSM) which persisted in questioning things like SKWAWKBOX and others and promoting independent thought.
“BMJ calls out Tories for targeting children for Covid infection”.
Is that a typo in the headline?
Should it read ‘injection’?💉
My greatest fear now is that we may face a new variant that will evade both testing and vaccines. This would/will be catastrophic.
Currently, the variants that are most dissimilar to the original Wuhan strain are 99.7% the same. So no worries on that score just yet.
Wirral: I’m afraid it might already be happening. After a quick Google search, I found this.
As a seekrr of truth, I tend to avoid Google, and Forbes – for obvious reasons.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2021/03/17/latest-covid-19-variant-discovered-in-france-isnt-detected-by-standard-pcr-tests/
This tosser refers to “gold standard” PCR tests. I stopped reading at that point, obviously.
Re the evading testing bit – believe me, it is impossible. The blood always contains liver-profuced “markers” of disease, infection or virus. It can’t not.
The PCR covid test(s) used globally are incapable of detecting illness. As used in UK, Australia and USA they produce between 80 and 90% false positives for the presence of the virus and cannot, therefore, detect the presence of illness produced by the virus (or even the possibility of it).
Most second year medical students know this. Doctors, though, need a lot of courage and risk losing their jobs and pensions to say so publically. Ask him or her privately.
Qwertboi: that’s rubbish. PCR tests have nothing to do with liver. It works by amplifying covid19 virus specific genes. It can miss an infection if there happens to be no virus RNA where you swab, but the chances of false negative are very slim.
You’re hanging yourself by the “I can’t or won’t be bothering with any worthwhile independent research” petard.
Ben Lapointe. You misread me. I said i) PCR tests cannot be used to detect illness, ii) blood tests can because of liver function.
But also, you might be misconstruing what RNA is, or rather its role of it in clinica; tests. You don’t need virus mRNA to identify illness markers. A cell copies DNA’s instructions – ‘transcription’ — onto a strand of messenger RNA, or mRNA, but whether the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 is an RNA-based virus is far from certain. Most expert biochemists think it is not – at least, the coronaviruses that have been in human circulation since the early-1960s (if not before) are not, so why should a supposed ‘novel’ verion of it from 2019 be? (That’s rhetorical btw, no-one knows, despite what Pfizer, the pharmaceutical companies and covidians claim).
100 grand plus is 100 grand. What are doctors there for again. Status, comfort, and doing no harm. Ask him or her, when? The hibernation season will soon be upon them again. You are caller 99.
They will somehow provide a treatment programme should that happen. Might involve needle and swabs. Just a shot in the dark.
The minutes of the May meeting of JCVI are circulating on Twitter and it is an horror of a sh*tshow. In short, they used the centuries old (literally, since Jenner) anti vaxx excuse to justify their inaction: that natural infection provides a better immunity than vaccines. Which is almost exactly the same excuse used by some cults of “god gave us an immune system and if it can’t protect us against a virus, it’s God’s will”. Spine chilling idiocy.
Hmmmm. But Pfizer will protect us?!
https://wirralinittogether.blog/2021/10/30/do-pfizer-have-any-undue-influence-over-how-the-news-is-delivered-in-the-usa-we-suspect-they-do/
This is the first chance for me to respond to your posts Wirral. I’ve forgotten what it was. Anyway I ticked it. Wonder what it was, must be the vaccine.
Ben
Throughout this the scientists on the government side have been fighting like rats in a sack, lost count of how many books the fuckers have published
Always follow the money
Herd immunity government and opposition(sic) policy.
Post Viral Fatigue(Long Covid)’s impact on children will a retrospective informed view- dare I say it HINDSIGHT, Captain.
that at least 11,000 UK children aged 2-16yrs have been suffering with ‘long Covid’ for at least a full year – with 29,000 taking more than three months to recover
But… but…but it doesn’t affect children…🤦
Or animals which is good news for the bats or are they birds or something. I’ll check wikipaedia(sic).
Long Covid only lasts 12 weeks at worst the results of a brand new gene therapy vaccination could be far worse but we won’t know for years as there is no long term studies that have been done. Also heart damage lasts a lifetime.
Maybe our ‘news’ is “brought to us by Pfizer?
It is unfortunate that even Skwawkbox is politicising Covid when it says childhood hospitalisation has risen 75% very few children get sick with Covid its just like a cold for the vast majority and if there were five children in hospital and it rises 75% that is only 20 children out of millions. Lets keep things in perspective the MSM over hypes things enough for all of us.