Sir, – Despite the B117 variant being significantly more transmissible, primary schools in Ireland have returned to schools without enhanced measures to cope with this. The wing and a prayer approach, where nearly half the primary school pupils and teachers in the country are in classrooms with no social distancing, is continuing. That is the actual reality of having social distancing beginning in third class. The availability of hand sanitisers and increased time spent outdoors remain the sole safeguards for teachers and pupils in this cohort.
As we know, after two weeks of the full return of primary schools, there was a four- to six-fold increase in GP referrals for Covid testing. This apparently was partly caused by “playdates”, St Patrick’s Day and, more imaginatively, Mother’s Day.
The virus seems to be highly disciplined too. It stops at the school gates, where it latches onto lingering parents, but not their offspring who are playing in the schoolyard for fair a portion of each weekday. At this point, the interpretation of statistics which puts so much of the blame on “playdates” and “house gatherings” lacks credibility. The truth is that with variable incubation periods, Nphet cannot possibly know whether a child picked up Covid in school or at the “playdate”. Obviously playdates should be avoided, but it seems overly convenient that they are cited as major factor in the disturbing rise in cases among children, rather than interactions within the school during the day.
In contrast to the paucity of initiatives taken by the Irish Government to address the new virus strain, the measures taken in the United Kingdom are noteworthy. Shocked by the increase in Covid cases in the school-going cohort in the Kent area before Christmas, they introduced Covid testing for secondary pupils on their return to school, provided antigen kits so families could regularly test their children and teachers and school staff are now regularly tested. So a Conservative government, who, let us remember, pride themselves on not wasting money, recognised that schools might act, as Boris Johnson put it, as “a vector of transmission”. I understand our sluggish Government might roll out antigen testing at the start of the next academic year. Elsewhere, in Europe, France introduced mask wearing for over-sixes. At this point, Italy has vaccinated most of its teachers, while its over-sixes have been wearing masks since the beginning of the school year. Are we saying that Nphet knows better than the Italians who have so much more experience of the virus than we do? Should we not follow the lead of the United Kingdom, which introduced wholesale testing of pupils and teachers following their realisation that the new variant spread more easily among children?
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In its list of failures in relation to Covid, we now have this latest indignity, where teachers, gardaí, prison officers and other occupations in the “frontline” are pushed further down the vaccination list. This decision misses the point that besides their own personal health, frontline workers potentially will carry the virus back to their loved ones. In its obsession with having the statistics prove that these occupations are “safe”, the Government appears to have lost all common sense. Too many playdates, I think. – Yours, etc,
CIARAN MEADE,
Sandymount,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Our schools are not safe. The B117 variant has fundamentally altered the equation in schools. It is the Government that is “tiring”. Hoping to scrape and muddle through to June. And if a big fourth wave occurs, it won’t try very hard to find the cause. I reckon the Government would like to close the schools – and industrial action by teachers would be the ideal political basis upon which to do so. Indiscriminate reopening of schools during the vaccination rollout is a politically driven and scientifically nonsensical decision. We are so close to the fruition of our efforts and sacrifices. But the last mile is the toughest. It is time for the Government to refocus and regroup.
Under the present policy and conditions, a large fourth wave is now a mathematical certainty. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DEASY,
Carrigart,
Co Donegal.
A chara, –Up until last week, parents were being told that schools couldn’t open due to the risk to teachers and communities. Now we’re being told that it’s only age that matters and that most teachers aren’t at much risk at all. We are being fed a different line every week and it has worn very thin. If the young were low risk, why were schools closed? The Government and Nphet have bluffed their way through this pandemic and the public are finally seeing through it. – Yours, etc,
SARAH RYAN,
Raheen,
Limerick.