Education secretary Gavin Williamson was warned today that “allowing mass infection” of pupils with Covid would be “reckless”, in a letter raising concerns about the relaxation of virus controls in schools.   

An open letter, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) today and signed by more than 30 scientists and parent campaigners, expresses “concerns about the lack of mitigations for children and educational staff and the subsequent risk to children from Covid-19 as schools reopen in England this September”.

Covid outbreaks: What new guidance means for schools

School safety: Schools told when to ‘think about’ extra Covid measures

Contingency framework: Schools told to plan for more remote learning

The letter also calls for vaccines to be offered to all 12- to 15-year-olds, including a rollout in schools.

The group of scientists and campaigners says that in the past two months there have been more than 2,300 hospitalisations of under-18s in England, while there are an estimated 34,000 children currently living with long Covid in the UK.

Demand for more Covid safety measures in schools

“Long Covid can be associated with multi-system disease in some children, including persistent cognitive symptoms,” the letter says, adding that Covid can infect the brain, with structural brain changes observed in adults, including those with mild infection.

“Allowing mass infection of children is therefore reckless,” it says.

It adds that evidence from Scotland and the US, where schools reopened a few weeks ago, “suggests that the lack of adequate mitigations will likely lead to infections spreading among children and significant absences due to student and staff illness, further disrupting learning”.

And it points out that children are returning to schools in the context of a more transmissible Delta variant, with community infection levels “26 times higher than the same time last year”.

The letter notes that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have recommended that teenagers are vaccinated, as well as using other mitigation measures such as masks, small bubbles, testing and improved ventilation in schools this autumn.

“England has not followed this advice. There has been no plan for robust mitigation measures in schools to reduce the risk for children from infection,” the letter says.

“Despite MHRA [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] approval, the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has not yet recommended vaccination of  all 12- to 15-year-olds, and their recommendation to vaccinate 16- to 17-year-olds has come too late to complete vaccination of adolescents before they return to schools, despite clear evidence that benefits far outweigh risk at current levels of infection,” it adds. 

The letter makes a series of recommendations for government such as offering vaccines to all 12- to 15-year-olds, including rollout in schools, reinstating mask-wearing for secondary school students and staff in classrooms and communal areas while transmission remains high, and urgent investment in improving ventilation in schools, as well as supplemental ventilation through the provision of “air filtration devices as needed” and carbon dioxide monitoring of indoor spaces to “ensure that targets are met”.

And it calls on government to reintroduce bubbles with “appropriate maximum sizes” to minimise disruption to education.

It says schools should be responsible for contact tracing with strict policies on isolation and PCR tests of all contacts of cases, and that financial support for self-isolation should be improved to boost “uptake of rapid tests in schools”.

The government should also “provide remote learning options and support, including wi-fi, tablets and/or laptops for clinically vulnerable children, children living in households with clinically vulnerable members and those required to self-isolate”, it says.

And the letter adds that “mandatory attendance policies and prosecutions and fines for parents” must be removed, while mental health support in schools for pupils and staff should be provided.

The letter has been signed by members of Independent Sage, the SafeEdForAll parent group and a member of the NEU teaching union’s national executive.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Education remains a national priority, and the success of the vaccine programme means schools and colleges will deliver high-quality, face-to-face education to their pupils, with minimal disruption.

“Ventilation is just one measure we are advising schools to take, alongside on-site testing and increased hygiene, to strike the balance between keeping staff, students and families safe and minimising disruption to education.

“Schools have clear guidance on how to maintain good ventilation, and the 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors we are providing - backed by £25 million - are being rolled out from the start of term.”