Stop forcing healthy children to isolate
The school testing regime has got to go.
A quarter of a million children in England missed school last week. That’s one child in 10, out of class and stuck at home. Seven-thousand schools shut down entirely, with every single pupil sent home. Yet hardly any of these children are ill. And only a tiny proportion of them – 9,000 – actually tested positive for Covid. No, these are perfectly healthy children sent home simply because they have, potentially, come into contact with someone, most likely another child, who has tested positive. Entire classes, year groups or even whole schools count as ‘bubbles’, and if just one child tests positive for Covid the entire group must self-isolate for 10 days.
Just as life is slowly beginning to return to normal for many adults, children are still being held hostage by ludicrously over-the-top Covid regulations. That so many children are being effectively placed under house arrest is outrageous. That this comes off the back of them having already had 15 months of schooling disrupted – and 15 months of their young lives ruined – by lockdown is nothing short of scandalous.