Masks are back for schoolchildren in Year 7 and above, who from the start of term will be required to wear them throughout the day including in classrooms. The Telegraph has the story.
Secondary school pupils will be asked to wear face masks in classrooms again as ministers draw up contingency plans to keep schools open amid fears of widespread teacher absences.
The measure will apply to students across the country in Year 7 and above, with the Government issuing new guidance just 48 hours before millions of pupils are due to start returning after the Christmas holidays.
It brings England in line with Wales and Scotland, with mask guidance already in force for staff and pupils when walking through corridors and communal areas.
Defending the decision to reimpose masks in classrooms for the first time since May last year, Nadhim Zahawi said it was designed to help “maximise the number of children in school” and would remain only as long as needed.
Writing for the Telegraph, the Education Secretary said face-to-face teaching would be the “expected norm” heading into the new term, and confirmed that all exams in January would “go ahead as planned”.
“The Prime Minister could not be clearer: education is our number one priority and we will do everything in our power as a government to minimise the disruption to schools,” he said.
However, the Telegraph can also disclose that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) have begun discussing proposals that could see heads asked to prioritise primary, GCSE and A-level pupils for face-to-face teaching should schools be hit by widespread staff absences, with others taught remotely.
Other potential guidance that could be issued in a worst-case scenario includes grouping multiple classes together in sports and assembly halls. The department is also looking at “flexible staff models” should absences hit 10%, 15% or 25%, but insiders say schools are likely to “tip over” at 30%.
Worth reading in full.
The controversial move comes despite the two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) for the use of masks against COVID-19 finding no robust evidence of benefit. The Danish Danmask-19 study found no statistically significant reduction in COVID-19 incidence from the use of surgical masks (the study didn’t look at the even less effective cloth masks that are common among school pupils). The Bangladesh mask study also found no benefit from cloth masks and the reported benefit from surgical masks was just 11%, with a 95% confidence interval that included zero (meaning we can’t even be 95% sure there was any benefit at all). The mask intervention in Bangladesh was also accompanied by an awareness raising campaign, among other issues that confounded the findings.
Masks are ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 largely because SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus and cloth and surgical masks do not prevent people breathing, or filter particles small enough to prevent sufficient virus particles passing in and out.
But why let scientific evidence get in the way of a political gesture and a sop to the unions?
Discussion
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The wording is ”will be asked to….” That’s not ”being forced to”. This is the point at which parents need to start teaching their children about ”peer group pressure” and the importance of resisting it.
As children, many of us resisted (perhaps every person who is commenting here) so it CAN be done.
Once again the health advisers in this country simply choose to ignore the scientific data. At the expense of your children. Had enough yet?
parents wake up. There is not one study that says these paper and cloth masks prevent contracting or transmitting covid. Quite the opposite. The data is extremely clear that the size of the virus simply cannot be stopped with such ineffective personal protective gear.
what the masks can do though, if worn for prolonged periods, is become moist, accumulate bacteria and increase the risk of bacterial infections for the wearer.
a simple letter to your headmistress/master to say your child is exempt is all it takes to remove this risk from your child. Time to wake up parents. Time to stand up for your children, since this government cannot be bothered.
anyone heard of best practice? See what Florida has done over the past two years. Schools never closed, there were no mask mandates. If your child is sick, stay home. That’s it.
This is simply child abuse. The Government should be taken to court and prosecuted. Disgusting people.
https://t.me/robinmg/13480
WHEN ARE PEOPLE EVEN ON HERE GOING TO REALISE IT IS NOT LAW, A MANDATE IS ONLY LAW IF YOU AGREE TO IT!! OPEN YOUR EYES FFS, DO NOT COMPLY WITH THINGS IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO, DON’T WANT S POSITIVE TEST? STOP TESTING?! DON’T WANT TO WEAR A MASK? DON’T?;TIME TO WAKE UP SHEEPLE!! YOUR GOVERNMENT IN PLAYING YOU!
Guidance? And be asked? Which means they don’t have to, when will sheeple realise that they don’t have to do anything the ‘government”(and I mean that in the loosest of terms, as they are not a government anymore just a bunch of self serving yobs) says we are all sovereignty souls allowed to make our own decisions so Boris you can F#”K RIGHT OFF!
I know for a fact if I was of school age I’d read everything going on masks and then refuse to wear them at school citing the facts and that they cause me mental stress. Well within the law and perfectly true.
Can anyone really claim they are not in any way whatsoever affected by wearing one of these useless rags? Often mental health issues are not immediately apparent but if, for example, you sigh and say “Oh God not again just to go the shop” that is an indicator of mental stress. Avoiding going out because of masks is mental stress.
Then there is the fact of not being able to see peoples faces. I struggle immensely because I’m 64% deaf in the conversation range. I literally cannot make out what Sheeples are saying (you may be on here but if you wear a mask you are a Sheeple). That causes me stress and also stress to the person trying to communicate. Imagine what it is like for a child at school trying to learn a new subject.
I think, given the evidence of the last two years, we can safely say absence (aka extra free holidays) will be extremely high in schools.
The return of the mask in schools mandate is much more than “political gesture.” It is a way of conditioning, demoralizing, humiliating, sickening, and ultimately controlling the next generation.
No I believe that it is political, in the sense of it being a sop to both the SAGE fanatics and teachers’ trade union leaders, as a way of heading off more widespread restrictions. Going back to July 2020 the scandalously knighted Whitty enunciated the bizarre notion (that’s if you are a scientist rather than a medic) that relaxation of restrictions in some areas would need to be offset by new or tighter restrictions in other areas, and it’s that (laughable) principle that is in effect being followed in this case. Once it becomes accepted that NPIs have a cumulative impact that can somehow be gauged by those empowered to inflict them, then it follows that particular NPIs can be reintroduced in order to fine tune the rate of spread of the virus. And I know that sounds barmy because it is barmy but just take a look back at what Sir Barmy himself said in 2020 and I think you will understand where I am coming from.
Reuters reporting Japan is at 1% of its COVID peak cases and falling. India is at 3% of its peak and falling. What did these countries do? Ditch vaccine mandates for ivermectin. Since April 28, India medical officials started providing hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin to its massive population. As India is the major pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world, they were ready for this massive drug distribution. MIRACULOUSLY!, COVID cases have plummeted quickly since then. Meanwhile, all “first world” countries in Europe are reporting a rise in cases. Get your ivermectin before it is too late! https://ivmpharmacy.com
“Masks are ineffective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 largely because SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus and cloth and surgical masks do not prevent people breathing, or filter particles small enough to prevent sufficient virus particles passing in and out.”
Hey, that’s why Germany already mandates FFP2 masks (soon to be replaced by airtight masks, I guess).
“It brings England into line with Scotland and Wales”…
Government should have noticed today that England has a lower rate of Covid cases (albeit slightly) than Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So much for the extra restrictions in those places.
Total disgust!
The ridiculous policy of making people wear face coverings in any setting, when anyone who has bothered to think about it knows that it has no benefit in the real world, is key to understanding the whole shit show. It is more superstition than science and yet it is being lapped up, uncritically, by people all around the world. It’s astonishing and shows the control freaks can come out with any crap without it being resisted.
Faceless cowards may be able to teach face-deleted youngsters some things, but as a former modern languages teacher I can tell you with absolute certainty that modern languages isn’t one of them.
Not that the Fascists ever bothered about it anyway.
Perhaps all the parents of children who have obese teachers should get together and inform said teacher and head in writing that their children will wear masks when the teacher has their bmi under control. After all, it’s about best health don’t you know.
Masking of any kind is disgusting behaviour, let alone making children wear them for hours on end.
Breathing in your own exhaust gasses all day, and not supplying the brain/lungs with enough oxygen is utterly destructive, tantamount to torture. Storing up all manner of health problems for the future, let alone starving young developing brains of oxygen. In France they are now mandating it for children starting a 6 years old. Absolutely sick!
The government, health/education authorities know this of course, but are prepared to countenance it. Proof, if any is needed, that none of what’s been happening the last 21 months is about health whatsoever. Its about control, conditioning, obedience training, and the road to an eventual genocide.
Its a malicious mandate, by psychopaths
One slight correction:
The government’s activities over the last 21 months are all about national health – Destruction of.
Also note that there is evidence that children are less likely to spread covid once infected, thus their main goal (stopping dirty children from spreading it around) isn’t particularly backed by science.
Of course, SAGE don’t like this, because their models say that if you’re infected you’re infectious, and children do get infected. As a result, the usual suspects merely shout louder and louder that it is the children that are responsible until all scientific debate is suppressed.
I’d also note that the UK DoE actually did a fairly large study into the impact of mask wearing on covid spread in schools last Autumn — strange how we don’t hear much about that these days (perhaps Omicron variant is more scared of masks).
Finally, children are our future — when we’re stuck in care homes those now grown up children will remember what the adults did to them during these covid times.
The ‘usual suspects’ having recently been Honoured……. Effing bastards every last one of them.
“Stuck in care homes?” More likely to be euthanized or eliminated. Not by a generation seeking vengeance, but rather, one conditioned to disregard man’s humanity.
The sane parent and child’s answer to this was, is and will always be:
“I am exempt.”
From wearing a mask and from worshipping any other otherwise pointless if not harmful symbols of obedience.
If staff are happy to accept a child declaring that they are a boy or a girl accepting a claim of exemption should present no difficulties.
So pupils will be “asked” to wear masks, and “Government issuing new “guidance”. So not law then? Not set in stone. A family member who is awake to all this, says at the school where they work, masks are not enforced except in certain circumstances, and with parent consent. However it’s the parents that want their kids to wear them!
“Amid fears of teacher absences” …… code for teacher REFUSING to do their jobs, not ill.
Once again, children are to be sacrificed to appease the teaching unions because this pathetic Government won’t dare take them on and won’t admit that the masks are useless.
The government are quite happy for the teaching unions – the leaders have clearly been bought – to cause trouble because it provides them a get out, an excuse:
It was the unions, not us.
Has anyone found any details as to who owns the masks companies?
Like the testing companies some of which are linked financially to ministers, it is most likely a big scam to make ministers more money.
Someone reported the other days that some NHS Trusts pay twice as much as others for identical masks depending on where in China they source them (and the abilities of their procurement officers).
Parents and teachers who encourage their children to wear masks are encouraging a dangerous false truth and should be utterly condemned.
I was talking to a fairly high up Rotarian friend back in November. He informed me that they have been asked to prepare for volunteers for mass testing on 4th Jan, when the children return to school. So this was planned weeks if not months ago. They will mass test and guess what, they will find a high percentage of “positives” in the children and by mathematical modelling they will conclude the virus is rampant and we need to be locked down again, for our safety.
It’s the predictability of moves like this that can be so depressing.
How sad that Minister so successful at cutting through the “blob” over the vaccine rollout should now have been captured by the “blob”. I had high hopes for Zahawi, now evaporated
Really, you had high hopes for him?
No. These people are always a king-size let down.
Are you winding us up?
He’s a bloody Iraqi gangster.
It’s a small number of vociferous adults who are the problem. They should not be allowed anywhere near children. We must shout NO from the highest rooftops. You do not have to consent and can exempt yourself/ your parents can exempt you.
Yes, but will they? Too many will just go along with everything.
Over Christmas we went to a family gathering and a member of the family works in social services. She was saying that suicides amongst the youth have jumped dramatically. In her area they use to see 5 or 6 youth suicides a year, now it’s 2 or 3 per week. She said the majority of cases are high achieving males who have lost hope.
Evil doesn’t describe this shower of shit thats called a government.
From the outset of Lockdown One Local Live Online (Mirror Group News) would carry 1, 2 or sometimes 3 daily reports along the lines of ‘man found dead in car on M-Way bridge’, ‘Woman found dead at bottom of cliffs’ or ‘popular local musician found dead at home’.
These reports generally ended with “the Police say there are no suspicious circumstances and the Coroner has been informed”. ie not crime but not natural causes either.
What these reports did not include were the words Covid, Lockdown or Suicide (presumably to stymie internet searches) yet they were usually accompanied by pop up adverts for The Samaritans.
What a clever algorithm.
The bumbling bozo buffoon isn’t such a hero after all, then.
I suppose it is worth repeating. The Danish study did not look at the role of masks in reducing transmission. It only looked at the role of masks in protecting the wearer which has always been accepted as marginal. It is almost impossible to organise an RCT to measure transmission which is why you have to explore other evidence such as laboratory explorations of the effect of masks on expiration which provide mixed but somewhat positive evidence that they make a difference.
But why let scientific evidence get in the way of a political gesture and a sop to the readers of this forum?
Masks for something less than a cold? whatever the scientific evidence
I remember reading a research paper on bTB & Badger transmission. Apparently to try to prove cows catch Tb from badgers they put an infected caged badger in a cow shed for 24 hrs among a herd of cattle. They failed to prove anything, they’re still trying, apparently.
Another interesting experiment, Unscientific Human @Dr. Sam Bailey, Another first British Failure.
We’ve got real world comparisons between masked and unmasked states/countries that show no difference in any of the ridiculous mandates.
There are some comparisons that show no difference but:
That study looks at a plethora of variables and is full of words like “might”, “could”, “hypothesized” and so on. Hardly convincing. It seeks, rather desperately, to extract some suggestion that masks might work.
It has been conducted to try to justify a pointless policy after it has been introduced. It does not start with an open mind trying to discover whether something might help significantly.
That study looks at a plethora of variables and is full of words like “might”, “could”, “hypothesized” and so on
The same is true of any study that is not a political rant. Anyway it is only an example.
It has been conducted to try to justify a pointless policy after it has been introduced.
Tricky to study the effects of a policy before it has been introduced!
“But why let scientific evidence get in the way of a political gesture and a sop to the readers of this forum?”
What scientific evidence? The Danish RCT demonstrated that masks made no difference to the wearer – are you suggesting that masks fail to prevent the wearer from breathing in SARS CoV2 viruses, but do prevent the wearer from breathing out the virus? Are cotton rags a one way system then? Do tell.
are you suggesting that masks fail to prevent the wearer from breathing in SARS CoV2 viruses, but do prevent the wearer from breathing out the virus?
It is to do with concentrations. If you are infected, then the virus is present in the air you breath out in much greater concentration than the air you breath in – even if there are infected people in the room. The mask can make a much bigger difference to the relatively large concentration than it can make to the relatively small concentration.
“The mask can make a much bigger difference to the relatively large concentration than it can make to the relatively small concentration.”
And the evidence supporting that claim is…?
If masks markedly reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles (which I doubt) in the exhaled breath of infected people, then they ought to reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles in the air that is inhaled as well, and as a result, the rates of infection ought to differ between the masked and the unmasked, but the Danish Mask Study results showed that there was no statistically significant difference. Why do you think cheap masks are a one-way system?
And the evidence supporting that claim is…?
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72798-7
https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/5/e002794?ijkey=b5b031c6c1374104486ca0c94fa8fb5a9655099a&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2007800
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0016018
and so on …
If masks markedly reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles (which I doubt) in the exhaled breath of infected people, then they ought to reduce the ‘concentrations’ of virus particles in the air that is inhaled as well,
Yes – but if the level of concentration in the inhaled breath is low then the reduction in concentration is going to be very small (because there isn’t that much to reduce) and the difference in your chances of infection may not be statistically significant; whereas there is much more scope for reducing the concentration of the exhaled breath and therefore it is more likely to show up in reduced infection risk.
Any scientific proof of the efficacy of face shields, or medical masks worn incorrectly, or those bits of plastic you can buy to push the mask away from your face and allow in fresh air? Anything to prove that the variety of face coverings worn by the general public have had any overall benefit?
You can show that, in contrived situations, with specific coverings worn properly there might be a small chance that a droplet containing a virus might be stopped. Whoopee!
Have you actually read any of these studies? I’ve looked at the first on your list and I’l quote
“Our results indicate that aerosol transmission is a potential mode of transmission for coronaviruses as well as influenza viruses and rhinoviruses.”
Well as this is a very early study we now know that aerosol transmission is the mode.
“Our findings indicate that surgical masks can efficaciously reduce the emission of influenza virus particles into the environment in respiratory droplets, but not in aerosols.”
“Among the samples collected without a face mask, we found that the majority of participants with influenza virus and coronavirus infection did not shed detectable virus in respiratory droplets or aerosols…”.
There are too many problems with this study to go into, but as you can see, the results don’t support your view, particularly as the study did not address the infectivity of the viral shedding.
And what scientific evidence might that be? Can you show me any evidence that any country or state with mask mandates has achieved a better outcome than an equivalent area that hasn’t had such mandates?
I don’t need a study to convince me one way or the other.
We have survived and until two years ago thrived on this planet with millions of viruses. Our immune systems are so good that they have managed to keep the species alive without requiring an evolutionary adaptation to our respiratory systems – you know flaps for the open bits. Amazing.
If you believe that spending 8 hours per day with a rag on your face is in any way safe you are deluded – constantly taking up your own exhausts from an increasingly soppy piece of cloth which is full of germs.
Really?
So parliament has been recalled to vote on this increase in restrictions has it and zahawi has produced the research that backs up this imposition?
…. No, just more of the same kowtowing to the public sector unions, how come its teachers and hospital staff who are continuously off and not the shop workers or the self employed? You know the ones who don’t get full pay for being repeatedly off and it not being counted on their absence record.
Stop paying the cunts to be off instead of masking our children
Having just returned from a ten day stint as an inpatient on a highly specialised NHS ward I can report that, with one exception, there no longer appears to be a ‘covid absenteeism’ problem within my large regional hospital at least.
Bank Holiday shifts were shared out in exactly the same way as in years past with some not expected to work at all over the holidays. These are staff that cannot simply be replaced by agency nurses overnight, if at all.
The Ward Round was conducted each morning by a different Consultant, none of whom seemed to work on the Holiday afternoons.
The exception was my only constant, Maria, the Domestic who serviced my solo en-suite room for 7 days running (and no doubt the other 15 such rooms on the ward).
Questioning this she told of her many colleagues reporting sick with Omnicon leaving the department understaffed and her overworked. She took a dim view of these excuses.
On Monday 27th Dec she was able to finnish at lunchtime and take the rest of the week off.
How so?
“Because Monday and Tuesday are (faux) Bank Holidays so Double Time and everyone suddenly recovered from Omnicon”.
Maria also… Read more »