The government should roll out the vaccination programme for secondary school students “quickly” and at the same time it should rethink the policy on removing masks in schools, a former government chief scientific adviser said.
Sir David King, who is also chair of the Independent Sage Group of scientists, told Sky News: “The Pfizer vaccine has already been given the green light in this country to over-12-year-olds. I think we should run that programme forward quickly.
“But we’re opening schools today and the government has said 12- to 18-year-olds no longer need to wear face masks at school - I don’t think that was a wise thing to do and I do hope the government will rethink this in the light of the current figures.”
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The warning comes as new data released by Public Health England reveals that infections are highest in those aged 10 to 19.
Meanwhile, another leading scientist has said that secondary students should be vaccinated to avoid further periods of home learning and that it would be “a huge shame” if pupils were still doing home learning in the autumn.
Covid vaccine for secondary students ‘could avoid a return to home learning’
Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, told Good Morning Britain: “If we want schools to continue without disruption in the autumn and lift restrictions so children can have a normal experience, we need to vaccinate them, and if we wait and watch for the evidence it will be too late in the next few weeks.”
She added: “Children can still get long Covid and can still be chronically ill from this.
“Given that we know children can transmit, where we are going to see problems going forward is not going to be in care homes, it’s not going to be in hospitals, it’s going to be in schools, because this is where you’re going to see large groups of unvaccinated kids together, and we are going to have outbreaks.
“We might as well just do it, roll it out in the summer, get those kids covered so secondary schools can go back, normally, this autumn.
“I think it’d be a huge shame for backing blended learning or having kids doing home learning in the autumn.”
Yesterday, education secretary Gavin Williamson urged students and their families to take a Covid test before returning to the classroom today.
He said: “Asymptomatic testing helps break chains of transmission by taking people who are infectious but don’t know it out of circulation.”
The Department for Education says twice-weekly tests among students and teachers remain the best way to find the one in three asymptomatic cases of the virus.
