New DfE statutory guidance on allergy safety in schools states:
"Clean air is a core asthma control measure. Good ventilation, air quality monitoring and supplemental HEPA air filtration are essential."
Schools are now legally required to have regard to that.
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Translation:
You can now ask your asthmatic / allergic child's school for HEPA filters, and how they are monitoring air quality. And not having a plan isn't good enough anymore.
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This updated guidance exists because Benedict Blythe died from anaphylaxis at school in 2021, aged just 5.
His family's fight and * Benedict's Law * is why every school will soon need allergy policies, staff training and emergency adrenaline.
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Buried in the same guidance is a huge win. Clean air has been named for the first time as part of a school's basic duty of care.
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Clinically Vulnerable Families spent years giving evidence to the Covid-19 Inquiry on this explaining how schools blocked parents from installing their own air filters.
We then helped to worked directly with the DfE on this guidance.
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There's another win too, on 100% attendance awards - and how they've quietly punished children with chronic health issues for years.
The new guidance finally shuts that down for children with allergies and asthma!!!
π Calling all UK COβ monitor owners
AND any helpful UK voters
PLEASE REPOST β»οΈ β€οΈ and tag others!
π Can you *please* help us at the local elections next Thursday?
- Even if you don't own one, we still need your help!
1/π§΅
<Read our new article - next post>
Last year, your evidence helped us change the Electoral Commission guidance for assisting Clinically Vulnerable voters - which has improved safety for everyone.
This year, we NEED YOUR HELP - to audit whether the guidance has worked. π
The UK has not shared data from 2025. But for CV people it is much worse:
2024 JCVI data showed that vaccines reduced hospitalisations for Clinically Vulnerable people by 45%.
They published it!
...then removed millions with health conditions from eligibility!
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45% may sound lower.
But if your baseline is 2-12x more likely to be hospitalised from Covid, a 45% reduction in risk prevents 2-12x more hospitalisations per dose.
The JCVI removed high-risk groups on cost-effectiveness grounds.
But the cost-effectiveness case is stronger!
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The government just published its Pandemic Preparedness Strategy.
TLDR: Some welcome commitments inc. on ventilation. But Clinically Vulnerable people are still not clearly defined or automatically protected, and the prioritisation framework won't arrive until 2027.
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What's new?
Published 25 March 2026, this is the UK's first major pandemic strategy since Covid.
It covers all 4 nations, sets out 12 principles and detailed action plans to 2030, backed by around Β£1 billion of investment.
But what about the detail...?
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They know another pandemic is coming... and epidemics are also a risk.
The question is:
Will Clinically Vulnerable families be protected when it does?
- This document raises the question more than it answers it.
β οΈEast Kent Trust failed to report their first case for 2 daysβ οΈ
Here's what you need to know.
TLDR: Peaked 13th March. No new cases since - with reporting delays, but that's even better news than it sounds.
1/π§΅ π @laurabundock @SkyNews
THE OUTBREAK IS DECLINING but understates how well that's going. π
The earliest case became unwell on 9th March, with the latest on 16th March, and the peak was 13th March.
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Cases take time to be confirmed and reported.
The fact that nothing new has surfaced in the data as of 23rd March - despite the reporting lag - means the real-world situation is almost certainly better than the numbers show.
Meningitis
* Important thread for those who prefer balanced and factual information *
In order to understand risk we need to break down a few things....
π¦ Risk from the bacteria
πππ Individual risk
π Environmental risks 1/
The Kent outbreak is predominantly MenB (Group B). This is a serious infection - and potentially an adapted strain - investigations are ongoing...
Bacterial meningitis is rare but more severe than viral, and up to 1 in 10 cases of bacterial meningitis in the UK is fatal.
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MenB isn't new. There are around 300 cases of MenB per year in the UK, even with vaccination programmes.
What's unusual is the cluster - multiple cases linked to a single location in a short window. It has now spread to a student at a second university in Canterbury, Kent. 3/
UK COVID INQUIRY - CVFπππ
@AdamWagner1 Closing Submissions
The Covid Inquiry has good ventilation protocols (as advised by CVF at the start of the Inquiry) including HEPA filters.
Under 1000ppm is therefore the safe threshold ( but without it would be under 800ppm).
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We need to understand airborne transmission in order to make all indoor environments safer for everyone, and especially for Clinically Vulnerable people.
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The need for Clinically Vulnerable people to have: