Thread by @cv_cev

🚨Whitty is on the stand today... follow this thread.

CTI "What about children who lived with parents who were still at risk...?"

Whitty "The risk to shielding adult... will be increased somewhat, but the risk to the child... scarring their life chances indefinitely."

1/

CW "Risk-benefit taking a child-centred approach, was to prioritise the needs of the children.

I don't think [there is] convincing evidence, that was with the benefits of hindsight, an incorrect judgement."

- Don't the needs of the children include not killing their parents?
2/

CTI "But looking at if from the perspective of a child who might be a very difficult position... to be in."

CW "The need to have a conversation with the doctor [or nurse] their family know."
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How would these conversation reduce risks?
Wouldn't it waste the time of HCWs?
3/

Schools reassuring "anxious" parents about measures to in place to reduce risks in schools.

Schools were not in a position to reassure parents, as they were not clinicians or clinical settings.

4/

Schools can say "We are doing the following things..."

Doctors "And these things that are being done will materially decrease the risk."
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....but the things they were doing were not materially decreasing risks suffiently for high-risk families!

5/

Risks in schools to consider:

Children shielding under paediatric care.
Risks for teachers and school staff.

Transmission does occur but it may well be "staff to staff rather than from children".

2/

CW "Shielding for adults... over time our understanding of who was at risk... improved... a group at significantly increased risk... very low virus... incredibly low rates."

3/

Adults: Could stop shielding because the infections were lower.

Children: The risk was substantially lower.

4/

RCPCH said: "The great majority of these children are at trivially increased risk relative to all other children."

Asthma is given as a reason - but asthma wasn't shielded unless immunosuppressed - which was potentially at very high risk!

5/

Shielding was voluntary, but children couldn't choose to shield and they had to go back to school.

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Ventilation:

CW "It's an uncontroversial statement... to say that improving ventialtion in schools would be a good thing... not just for future pandemics."

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AW "For... 'flu and other respiratory infections.... lead to individuals not having their schooling... outbreaks locally. It also has implications for indoor air pollution."

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IPC measures in schools:

Hand washing
Wiping down of surfaces

CTI : "Is enough being done to encourage the continued use infection control measures in schools?"

9/

CW "Very clearly there are advantages. Both immediate advantages in terms of reducing infections... and arguably getting people used to life-long habits which will reduce the risk to themselves and their families of completely preventable infectious diseases."

10/

Earlier emphasis on wearing masks for children:

✅Adults
"I thought there could have been an earlier emphasis on wearing masks in the adult population, absolutely. And... if we were to re-run the scientific advice we would have got to that place at a much earlier stage."
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Children

Youngest children ❌ "Inappropriate, and potentially harmful... at a physical level and almost certainly interfere with their development."

❌"They also interfere with teaching process and learning process."

Older children✅ "at the absolute peaks"

12/

CVF had 3 Qus... @AdamWagner1 KC tried but CW wasn't the most helpful.

"At the time shielding was paused, did you know... that it would be used to justify previously shielding children and children in shielding families being mandated to attend school just a month later?"

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CEV children:

CW "There was no evidence they were at increased risk in the first place."

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Adult is shielding:

CW "Covid was extremely low" "The harms of children not going into education was really clear."

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Choice:

AW quotes CW "The end of shielding wasn't a cliff edge, because people who were Clinically Vulnerable chose perfectly reasonably to continue..."

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AW "Would accept that when it came to school attendance... that it was important that those families, with a Clinically Vulnerable member... could continue to choose to... shield?"

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Children

CW "We no longer thought they were Clinically Vulnerable."

Adults

CW "In contrast to the adults, who were still Clinically Vulnerable but we thought the risk was low - because there was not much Covid."

18/

CW "A very small number of people [children] to whom that was an exception, but that was a very small subset.... we initally thought might be at increased risk, fortunately."

19/