Colin Davis Profile picture
Professor of cognitive psychology researching social change, behaviour change & people's response to climate change. Recovering chess player.

Jun 28, 2021, 7 tweets

[THREAD] I can't understand why there don't seem to be more parents expressing outrage at the UK government's herd immunity experiment on children that is happening in plain sight.

What is going on???

The government's own figures (from ONS) say 8% of infected kids experience #LongCovid. That could be several hundred thousand children.

You don't want that to happen to your children, right? We don't know what the long-term effects are. For all we know, they could be lifelong.

I understand it's not easy for parents to take preventative action. There's the threat of fines, and how does one combine home schooling with work? But also, I suspect people are going with the flow:"other parents are sending their kids to school, so I'd look weird if I didn't".

So I think it's probably important that parents like me are vocal about the fact that we're not participating in this experiment. My kids are not going to school until the govt gives up on this herd immunity experiment and makes schools safe.

"Safe" means mitigations -- compulsory masks, proper ventilation, air filters, outdoor classes when possible, etc. It also means vaccinating children. The vaccine has been approved, and we have enough doses. It doesn't have to be compulsory. Other countries are doing this.

Parents & teachers should be engaging in national school strikes to demand these mitigations. If COVID was killing lots of children, parents wouldn't stand for it. But are we prepared to stand back and allow 1 in 12 children to suffer from long-term disease?

If you've made it this far, here's a poll. It would be good to know what people think.

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