The draft terms of reference for the COVID-19 public inquiry must be revised to include the effect of the pandemic response on children and young people, 54 scientists and medics have said in a letter in today’s Times.
The draft terms of reference for the COVID-19 public inquiry must be revised to include the effect of the pandemic response on children and young people. This is almost entirely missing from the draft, which refers only to “restrictions on attendance at places of education”. There is no doubt that school closures and broader lockdowns harmed children. Educational losses have been most marked in children from deprived families and in vulnerable children. Mental health problems increased from being experienced by one in nine children and young people before the pandemic to one in six during 2020 and 2021. Childhood obesity rates last year were 20% or more above previous years.
It was right that our pandemic responses focused on protecting those most vulnerable to Covid. However, we must examine whether measures for schools were proportionate and equitable and whether, for example, the timing of the reopening of hospitality venues compared with schools fully considered harmful effects on children.
The COVID-19 inquiry must above all include the voices of children and young people themselves, something that was all too often missing from our pandemic responses.
Prof. Russell Viner CBE, Professor of Child & Adolescent Health, UCL Great Ormond St. Institute of Child Health
Prof. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Professor of Psychology, University of Cambridge
Prof. Chris Bonell, Professor of Public Health Sociology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr. Dasha Nicholls, Reader in Child Psychiatry, Imperial College London
Prof. Dame Uta Frith FRS FBA, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development UCL
Dr. Adrian James, President, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Prof. David H Rowitch FRS, Professor and Head of Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge
Robert Halfon MP, MP for Harlow, Chair, Education Select Committee
Baroness Martha Lane-Fox CBE, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho
Professor Sir Simon Wessely FRS, Regius Professor of Psychiatry, King’s College London
Professor Rosalind L Smyth CBE, Director and Professor of Child Health, UCL Great Ormond St Institute of Child Health
Prof. Stephen Scott CBE, Professor of Child Health and Behaviour, Director, National Academy for Parenting Research, Kings’s College London
Sir Anthony Seldon , Emeritus Professor, University of Buckingham
Prof. Laurence Moore, Director, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow
Prof. Mark H. Johnson, Professor of Experimental Psychology and Head, University of Cambridge
Professor Enitan Carrol, Professor of Paediatric Infection, University of Liverpool
Professor Monica Lakhanpaul , Professor of Integrated Community Child Health, UCL Great Ormond St Institute of Child Health
Prof. Lorna Fraser, Professor of Epidemiology, University of York
Prof. Deborah A Lawlor, Professor of Epidemiology, MRC Integrative Epidemiology at the University of Bristol
Prof. Tamsin Ford CBE, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
Professor Catherine Law CBE, Vice Dean (research), UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences
Prof. Ruth Gilbert, UCL Great Ormond St. Institute of Child Health
Dr. Ingrid Wolfe, Director, Institute for Women’s and Children’s Health. Kings College London
Dr Karen Horridge, Consultant Paediatrician in Disability, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust
Prof. David Skuse, Professor of Behavioural and Brain Sciences, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Prof. Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, Former Children’s Commissioner for England, Past President British Medical Association
Prof. Tim Dalgleish, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge
Prof. Alan Stein, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Oxford
Prof. Jugnoo Rahi, Professor of Ophthalmic Epidemiology, UCL Great Ormond St. Institute of Child Health
Dr. Matthew Shaw, Chief Executive, Great Ormond St. Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Professor Simon Murphy, Director, DECIPHer, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
Professor David Taylor-Robinson, Professor of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool
Prof. Sarah Lewis, Professor of Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol
Dr. Dougal Hargreaves, Houston Reader in Paediatrics and Population Health, Imperial College London
Dr. Delan Devakumar, Clinical Associate Professor in Child and Adolescent Health, UCL Institute for Global Health
Prof. Mina Fazel, Professor of Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Oxford
Prof. Neena Modi, President, British Medical Association, Professor of Neonatal Medicine, Imperial College London
Prof. Jessica Deighton, Professor of Child Mental Health and Wellbeing, UCL
Dr. Daisy Fancourt, Associate Professor of Psychobiology & Epidemiology, UCL
Prof. Eamon McCrory, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology, UCL
Professor Pasco Fearon, Director, Centre for Family Research , University of Cambridge
Dr. Lee Hudson, Clinical Associate Professor in Paediatrics, UCL Great Ormond St. Institute of Child Health
Professor Carol Dezateux CBE, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Health Data Science, QMUL
Dr. Robert Ross-Russell, Chair, European Board of Paediatrics, Peterhouse, Cambridge
Prof. Rona Campbell, Professor of Public Health Research, Bristol University
Dr. Sunil Bhopal, Newcastle University Population Health Sciences Institute
Prof. David Gunnell, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Bristol
Prof. Essi Viding, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, UCL
Professor Cathy Creswell, Professor of Developmental Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford
Professor Damien Rolland, Leicester Hospital and Leicester University
Dr. Michelle Heys, Associate Professor Community and Population Child Health, UCL Great Ormond St. Institute of Child Health
Prof. George Davey-Smith, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, University of Bristol
Prof. Lucy Bowes, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, University of Oxford
Prof. Stuart Logan, Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology, University of Exeter
Prof. Ann John, Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry, Swansea University
It’s encouraging to see that few of the signatories have been signatories of earlier letters. While you may wonder why they are speaking out now but not earlier, in fact it’s good to see new voices joining the calls for the harms of lockdowns to be properly addressed, and new heads above the sceptical parapet.
One of the signatories, Dr. Sunil Bhopal, has tweeted about the letter.
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