Thread by @dgurdasani1

Concerned at the lack of understanding of basic public health principles. Let me correct this.
"We are asking asymptomatic children to test, so we can detect infection before it spreads to others, so we can keep children & families safe & not fuel transmission in schools"

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1449847030290034696

Most transmission happens at the pre-symptomatic stage, and many children are asymptomatic. They have the same virus levels and replicable virus as those who are symptomatic, and can transmit. It's mass superspreading in schools that causes absenteeism, not protective measures.

Having mass transmission in schools is far from harmless. Why aren't you advocating for urgent mitigations + vaccination of children, rather than pushing for misinformed policies that are likely to expose even more children to the impact of COVID-19

Does the fact that we're having 20,000 cases in children, and rising numbers of children with persistent symptoms not worry you at all. We haven't even felt the impact of the mass infection post-school opening yet.

https://twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1449851182416027649?s=20

Are you seriously happy for children to be exposed to a neurotropic virus, that is known to cause multi-organ dysfunction, neuro-cognitive impact, and serious cardiovascular illness- at least where it's been studied (in adults with mild disease)?

You should be protecting children. Why are a few public health scientists in the UK lone voices in this regard, when the paediatrics community and leadership should be preventing this disaster rather than being complicit in it.

We just saw a joint parliamentary committee report about 'groupthink' in the scientific community and 'exceptionalism'. And lack of attention to global experience and evidence. We're supposed to be learning from this, not repeating the same mistakes again. We can't afford not to.