“We should open schools, monitor closely for any outbreaks and have effective plans in place to deal with them if they happen. We were not really thinking about where the risk lies, just on suppressing the virus. “Instead of concentrating on schools we should have been concentrating on care homes. “But throughout this pandemic we have been very bad at communicating the actual risk of infection to individuals. “Evidence shows that children very rarely transmit to adults and there is not a single documented example of a child transmitting to a teacher in school. Any restrictions imposed should be “considered measures” and should protect those who needed it while letting everyone live more freely.Īs an example he explained: “Closing schools was not an epidemiologically sensible thing to do. He said a better understanding of who was actually at risk from the virus would allow better solutions to be presented. But we do need to get on with providing an alternative to lockdown.” “I would not dignify waiting for a vaccine with the term ‘strategy’. My concern is that far too many people involved in managing this pandemic have in mind that it will somehow burn itself out. “But we haven’t made much progress in finding a viable alternative to lockdown. “My hope was that we would have learnt how to handle the virus better so lockdown would no longer be necessary. He said: “At the time I agreed with lockdown as a short term emergency response because we couldn’t think of anything better to do, but it was always clear that the moment we started to relax enough measures we were likely to see infection rates rise again either nationally or locally. Prof Woolhouse said he had hoped the combined efforts of the world’s scientists would work out how to handle the virus during lockdown. “This is why we need a broader range of people on the government advisory board Sage with equal input from economists to assess the damage to incomes, jobs and livelihoods, educationalists to assess the damage to children and mental health specialists to assess levels of depression and anxiety especially among younger adults, as well as psychologists to assess the effects of not being able to go to the theatre or a football match.” He said: “I suspect right now more people are being harmed by the collateral effects of lockdown than by Covid-19. This would allow it a better understanding of how lockdown has had effects across the whole of society.
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