Coronavirus: govt scientific advice “inconclusive” on safe reopening of primary schools - BBC News

The Government's scientific advisers have released their advice on controversial plans for primary schools in England to re-open for some pupils, on June 1st. The scientists say the evidence on whether it is safe is inconclusive.

They suggest that children are less vulnerable to infection and that teachers do not appear to be at a greater risk than other professions. However they have said that an effective track and trace system needs to be in place, before schools fully reopen.

Clive Myrie presents BBC News at Ten reporting from Education Editor Branwen Jeffreys, Science Editor David Shukman and Health Editor Hugh Pym.

[versaceviper]

If there's 1 death, it's an issue.

[cammysmith]

The only children who should be at school are key workers kids who need to go so the parents can get to work. No need at all for anyone else to go back until after summer.

[bellatam_]

It's a lose lose situation. From a student's perspective, we are gambling quality of education with unknown safety concerns and measures

[memyselfandmik]

This is just one big science experiment! This is going to go horribly wrong :(

[fridaclark]

Send the goverment in to teach the kids

[akid]

Why they pushing school so hard. Who's even asking for this

[mbjac]

Trouble is, too many people have become comfortable living at home on 80% of their wages, that's why they don't want to go back

[katssketches]

Worry about how our kids will starve when we enter a depression

[mixedracebajan]

On the BBC today! Fear, fear, fear, fear, fear and even more fear stay home, social distance, shame anyone who doesn't obey. And on tomorrow's news your all going to die, fear, fear ect

[MSFLOSH]

This initiative clearly stems from a financial need; it is clear that if primary school children return to school it will enable workers to return back to work which will be beneficial to the government as there will be less need for them to continue to pay for furloughed workers. There is clearly no educational gain from this but only a financial one.

[fishtherapy]

Track & trace. Huge assumption by the BBC that people will sign up to be tracked. Not on your Nelly. who would want to be tracked and traced? sod that!!

[jackalann]

Surely they can't force people to send their kids back to school?

[secretbillionaire]

Many people say its still not safe to go back to school and work but when the weather is nice they all flock to beaches and parks.😂😅🤣

[Dron]

A teacher stood in a room with a bunch of children who are all potential carriers of the virus. Given social distancing only allows you to be in contact with one household, logically how is a teacher not more exposed being in contact with fifteen??? I call BS.

[DidntKnowWhatToPut]

My friends both caught COVID from their 2 children who bought it home from their primary school just before the lockdown. Both their kids had it really bad, one nearly ended up in hospital. Took them all 2 weeks to recover. When they called around they found that almost every family with kids in the school had it at the same time. The School was the hub for the community spread.

[dalefelix]

If parents are taking there kids out to the shops and out to the beaches they shouldn't be too worried about there kids getting the virus

[ReturnToSenderz]

I wish the government would release more details about their scientific assessments and how they’re comparing different groups. It’s easy to look at the flat numbers that say teachers are less at risk of catching the virus, but the simple fact is that they’re only exposed to a small fraction of their regular students (who are in turn way more socially isolated than most adults can be), whereas other workers are often exposed to the general populace for extended periods and logically have higher exposure rates. Are the government’s recommendations taking that into account? How can they create models for how much the risk will increase when they’re not even sure if children transmit the virus at the same rate as adults? Can we be sure that children aren’t just more likely to be asymptomatic carriers than adults rather than being less likely to catch the virus? Do we really want to send the children least able to follow social distancing into social environments when we don’t have answers to those questions? 🤔

[jotomaki]

Lol hilarious teachers are at less risk than other professions 🤣

[memebump]

You guys could have transitioned to online classes 3 times by now.

[thetntsheep]

Not to mention the difficulty of keeping young children a certain distance away from each other