Thread by @BillHanage

This is relevant to the situation in the UK and elsewhere schools have been open with minimal infection control. Forget December, we knew *enough* in July to start preparing for the winter 1/n

https://twitter.com/gabyhinsliff/status/1346191602897793026

You want schools open? Really? You have a few advantages, especially with younger kids who are less susceptible than older kids and adults. But that's not enough on its own. As in so many things here you see the advantage when you put multiple interventions together 2/n

You can improve ventilation. You can use masks. I know some of you don't *want* to wear masks but pick your battles for chrissakes. Test. Build confidence that you are doing everything to minimize transmission in schools and its consequences, instead of denying it happens 3/n

There are a lot of things that can be done to reduce risks. The above are only a few. Some are easier than others, but all rest upon controlling wider transmission *outside* schools. The more introductions, the more likely one of them causes an outbreak 4/n

If you get to a point where parents cannot send their child to school without being reasonably anxious that an undetected, uncontrolled outbreak there will introduce the virus to their household, that's a bad place to be. And that's the situation in too many places 5/n

If you are in the UK and you are angry, you should be. If you are elsewhere that greater infection control efforts have been made, you should be grateful. Wherever you are, we should all work to make things better than they are now, and learn from each other - inc mistakes 6/end