Thread by @SGriffin_Lab

At the risk of sounding like a broken record...

1. Lockdown is an extreme response. There should only have been one.
2. The fact that there was >1 is due to policy failure and meddling from eejit GBD types, PRE-VACCINE🤬💔
3. Kids are NOT invulnerable.

thetimes.com/article/5a939c…

4. Failures to act quickly, unlocking too soon, and lack of mitigations set in place just continued the roller coaster ride.
5. Restrictions highlighted and exacerbated preexisting inequalities. As @covidinquiryuk shows, #Austerity, #Brexshit
6. "Key workers" faced higher risks.

7. Re kids, misguided narratives that kids somehow magically were not infected/affected/able to transmit SARS2 are, put simply, bollocks.
The harm done by this was, and continues to be, criminal, IMHO. Yet, it is still perpetuated by some who, frankly, ought to know better.

8. Similar to flu, RSV, acute SARS2 has a U-shaped risk for kids. 6m-1yr highest risk, drops during preschool, then begins direct age related trend.
First exposure is always highest risk.
#MISC/#PIMSTS caused further harm, but infection-induced immunity has now reduced incidence.

9. The trauma of #LongCovidKids has been shamelessly ignored, plus other sequelae in children are clearly linked, including juvenile onset type 1 diabetes 😢 💔.
10. Kids under 5 are much less likely to be reinfected, whereas school-age kids risk increases dramatically.

11. All of the above can be mitigated by vaccination. Kids mRNA vax are highly effective, and the lower dose effectively eliminates adverse effects for u12s...plus, as ever, #COVID is a higher risk of severe myocarditis cf vaccines, something you won't hear from Malhotra et al.

12. However, kids aren't vaxd preschool, whilst we do this for flu...and the flu programme is also targeted at reducing transmission.
13. B4 eejits say Covid vax doesn't reduce transmission, of course they do, depending upon match and timing...just like flu vaccines! R0≠Rt...

14. So, arguing that SARS2 doesn't harm kids is 💩, so back to schools.
15. Closing wasn't 100%, even in 2020. Key workers had their kids in schools. Alpha absolutely required closures, despite Johnson's single day back in Jan 2021 debacle 🙄
16. Open vs closed is a false binary.

17. The point is that both official SAGE and @IndependentSage advocated for mitigations to enable a safe return to school. These were squarely ignored.
18. What ensued was a bizarre hodgepodge of zeppelin size bubbles, inadequate testing, inconsistent mask policy...

...CO2 monitors, eventually, but with no action plan...no mention of #HEPA filters, #CRBoxes, and mixed guidance on ventilation. All despite the best efforts of people like @CathNoakes, @CliveBeggs and others. #ClassActTrial demonstrates the importance and value of doing this.

18. Yes, money is a factor, and many schools were in dire need...the rebuilding programme had been cancelled, cuts from austerity were terrible, free laptop funding was cut during restrictions in 2020, and if not for Marcus Rashford, free school meals would have been as well.

Surestart centres had been decimated, teachers pay was (and still is) inadequate, childcare costs...yes, money was tight...

Yet, how many filters could have been installed using the money for multiple bogus PPE contracts, Sitels test & trace bill, or sending nobody to Rwanda...

19. As ever, the long term cost recovery for kids and staff not getting sick and reduced transmission is never factored in. Same for JCVI vax assessments. It's mind bogglingly simple, really.
20. So, the real mistake here isn't shutting schools (partly), or even lockdown...

The mistake was doing nothing during the time paid for so dearly with lives devastated by both direct and indirect effects of the pandemic.
COVID has laid bare the socioeconomic and health inequalities created by more than a decade of growing poverty gap and shrunken state.

The NHS was already crippled by the time COVID hit, much of our other infrastructure was the same.
Of course closing schools had disproportionate impact on those most disadvantaged, and of course they've struggled to recover, but what additional resources have been provided?

We've known this since the wonderful @MichaelMarmot made it plain.
Why is that so many kids depend on schools for so much? It's not right, and more needs to be done to support vulnerable kids and their families. Slashed community health and social care budgets haven't helped.

21. So, of course, closing schools was terrible for many, but it merely precipitated a situation that was near breaking point in the first place.
It's a cop-out to blame all on COVID, poor as the govt response was. We also can't know the outcome had nothing been done, as ever.

Don't be played by the "Sweden" card either, it's a myth that they didn't act, plus their society is structured differently, and public resources are abundant.
We may be a rich country, but the wealth is not shared by any means...
22. Fact is, this all happened years ago, so...

it strikes me as odd that folks prefer to blame restrictions rather than proactively ask why various communities struggle to recover.
Think about it, it's a position of privilege to pretend that the pandemic hasn't affected you badly, and to ignore population scale harms...

This revisionist tendency to say we over reacted is folly, as the truth is that dithering and not acting quickly enough ultimately resulted in longer and harsher restrictions placed upon people's lives.
The pandemic should be a catalyst for learning, but seemingly not in the UK.

We do the memories of those we lost, and those who suffer, a disservice by not addressing the clear weaknesses in our national infrastructure laid bare by this virus.
We are stuck in a GBD-lite, vax only/no vax paradox, reverting to 2019 "normality" as multiple elephants watch on

Public health needs to be reestablished from the bottom up, but in the meantime there are so many easy wins that can help ensure harms are reduced in the meantime.
Mitigate, vaccinate, communicate...more on this to follow...

Apologies for the overly long rant! 🙏