Thread by @ProfColinDavis

Today marks a milestone of sorts: the number of children under 14 who've tested positive for Covid in England just passed one million (1,003,787 to be precise). 🧵

This number underestimates the number of infections, of course, because a) there wasn't really any testing of children in the first wave (the graph shouldn't be flat prior to Oct 2020), and b) many children (especially younger children) are asymptomatic when infected.

And the figure doesn't include all children (15-17 year olds are in the same age band as 18 and 19 year olds, so it's hard to cleanly separate children and young adults).

All the same, a million cases is a lot of children. Over a third of these cases have been reported since the start of September this year (i.e., the last month and a bit).

And the numbers don't show any sign of slowing down. There was a brief dip after the initial meteoric rise in September, but cases are rising again now, and the rolling rate for 10-14s today is higher than it has ever been.

I don't really see the point of reiterating why it's a bad idea to allow so many children to be infected -- I don't expect to change anyone's mind at this point.

Nor does there seem to be much point in noting yet again how readily we could've done things differently, and still could, and how this would allow us to greatly reduce Covid transmission in the same way that other nations have done.

But what's the point? We seem to be a nation bent on self-harm. We kill off our old people, and practically force our young people to be infected with a disease that we still don't fully understand, and which seems to have long-term consequences for a disturbing number.

We're now recognising that the UK's early response to the pandemic was the worst public health failure ever. But it's largely the same people in charge, and they haven't finished failing. bbc.co.uk/news/health-58…

I don't have any positives to end on. Today I just want to mark the mega-failure to protect England's children. "Me paenitet, filii mei", as our PM might (should) say.