70 cases of Covid-19 after France reopened its schools but the Tories STILL protest that ours will be safe
Michael Gove, Amber Rudd and all the Tory apologists must be cringing at their comments over the weekend, with the latest news from France.
Our cousins across the Channel sent a third of their children back to school last week, with classes capped at 15 students in order to maintain social distancing and prevent Covid-19 infection.
It didn’t work:
Just one week after a third of French children went back to school in an easing of the coronavirus lockdown, there has been a worrying flare-up of about 70 Covid-19 cases linked to schools.
French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer sounded the alarm on Monday, telling French radio RTL that the return has put some children in new danger of contamination. He said the affected schools are being closed immediately. French media reported that seven schools in northern France were closed.
Mr Blanquer did not specify if the 70 cases of Covid-19 were among students or teachers.
Given that the incubation period for the virus is several days, people are “likely” to have been infected before the reopening of schools, he said.
Last week France recorded its first death of a child linked to Kawasaki disease, a mysterious inflammatory syndrome that some doctors say could be triggered by Covid-19.
The nine-year-old boy was one of 125 children in France currently with the syndrome.
Sure, people were “likely” to have been infected before the reopening of schools – but who knows how many people in the seven that had to be closed – teachers, pupils, and parents after the kids came home – have been infected as a result of the return?
Meanwhile, in the UK, the Tories are still (desperately) trying to convince us that when they reopen our schools at the beginning of June, our children, teachers and families won’t suffer the same fate. But they’ve provided absolutely no evidence to support these claims, that seem increasingly unrealistic.
Michael Gove talked a lot of nonsense on TV:
https://twitter.com/danbloom1/status/1261943898227781632
Great! So if people die as a result, they'll be able to claim on this 'guarantee', will they? :0) https://t.co/MX6TWYZsEl
— simon maginn (@simonmaginn) May 17, 2020
So did Amber Rudd:
https://twitter.com/KeithCameron5/status/1261967519377752064
She said:
They have to go back because we need to make sure that our children go back and that all the issues to do not just with education, but also with security, safety, mental health issues, safeguarding, those children need to go back to school.
Gibberish!
Now why would we give a damn what she thinks?
Are teachers the new Windrush Amber? https://t.co/cxnJg5rhnN
— Damien Willey 🟢 🔴 (@KernowDamo) May 17, 2020
In the UK, fears are rising that the government is putting teachers and parents at risk of Covid-19, and children in peril of dying from the new syndrome similar to Kawasaki disease. Considering the situation in France, these are proving justified:
I think the government are so keen to get the economy up & running they are willing to accept risks of Kawasaki disease in children & CV19 death of teachers. In their naivety, I think they’ve swallowed assurances that risks to children are minimal. They’re ignoring new evidence.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) May 17, 2020
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson tried to claim that
children are at the heart of everything we do
and came a cropper – because some of us have long memories:
Is that so Gavin ?
Well a quick glance at your Goverment's record over the past 10 yrs, doesn't really seem to bear that out. https://t.co/Hf9k2As16Q— Clare Hepworth OBE (@Hepworthclare) May 17, 2020
And if you & your Government "really care about children" why are so many of them living in poverty ?
Why so many families having to turn to food banks ?
Think there's "cognitive dissonance" going down there Mikey ! https://t.co/A1hcEAi1DS— Clare Hepworth OBE (@Hepworthclare) May 17, 2020
There will be no test, track and trace system for teachers and pupils:
https://twitter.com/KeithCameron5/status/1262104036205002753
Instead, they will have to self-isolate, along with anybody likely to be infected – as happened at this school in Colne:
All staff and pupils at this Pendle school have been advised to self-isolate with their households after a staff member contracted Covid19
The school has closed for 14 days https://t.co/II6s5bl5EP— The Prole Star (@TheProleStar) May 17, 2020
No consideration has been given to the fact that infected children will share items including food with others:
https://twitter.com/BillyJWells/status/1262156719372861440
https://twitter.com/BillyJWells/status/1262161410462748673
Yeah – here it is:https://t.co/aCLYOU4pmO
— Mike Sivier (@MidWalesMike) May 18, 2020
I am a retired secondary headteacher, twice judged by Ofsted to be Outstanding. If schools reopen anytime soon, without the NEU’s 5 tests in place, I promise you this: no HT can say, hand on heart, “I can maintain 2 metre social distancing and safeguard our pupils and staff”.
— Gary Lefley (@GaryLefley) May 17, 2020
Nor, it seems, has any been given to the facts of opening schools at this time:
•Children can transmit CV19
•1,000 CV19 droplets can survive in air of a classroom for 8 minutes just from 1 person talking
•5,000 UK kids CV19+, 500 hospitalised, 14 dead
•75 teaching staff died of CV19 in Mar & Apr
•2 UK kids have died from Kawasaki (MIS-C), 100+ infected— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) May 17, 2020
The UK govt guidance for what to do if a child shows COVID-19 symptoms when primary schools reopen? Isolate them in a room, alone, and keep the door closed until they can be picked up. That’s 4,5,6 year olds.
The back-to-school push for the very youngest is so wrongheaded.
— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) May 16, 2020
Schools may as well be labelled ‘death camps’ – father
Girl, 5, fighting for life from Kawasaki disease weeks after 'beating Covid-19' https://t.co/HPBmzQZj0a
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) May 17, 2020
It’s heartbreaking. Kids are succumbing to covid related Pims-ts and dying. DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL.
“He was my greatest achievement. He could have gone on to do whatever he wanted with his life. Now he’ll only ever be eight months old.”https://t.co/viGo7hKk7e
— Teri ☘️💙♿️ (@mettlesome_teri) May 16, 2020
What will happen?
I think we’ll see a concentrated campaign by the Tories and their puppets in the press, to persuade the public that there is no harm in sending their children back to school at the start of June – and that anybody saying otherwise is a fool at best, and an enemy of the people at worst:
I predict an absolute hammering for parents and teachers over the next week.
The government will utilise a ‘you’re with us or against us’ strategy. Guilt trips.
‘Lazy teachers, union overlords, and feckless parents’ will be castigated.
I am in the ‘against us’ crowd
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) May 17, 2020
Will it work?
Well…
How many parents will allow their kids to go to school if they are not convinced it is safe?
I doubt very many
— Tom London (@TomLondon6) May 17, 2020
And the Tories?
Confidence in the government’s ability to manage the coronavirus crisis has plummeted since Boris Johnson moved to ease lockdown restrictions, new polling suggests https://t.co/Qopw8d0iWK
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) May 17, 2020
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
‘Little England’ is different to France because magically our little xenophobic, fascist country can contain the coronavirus and hence sending children back to state schools is fine! Meanwhile the elite schools such as Eton, Harrow and Winchester College remain closed until September 2020! Why??? Are these pupils so special or is it because the fascist tories who send their children to these schools know sending children back to school now will inevitably cause more deaths!
Still never mind fascist tories are the experts and yes this will happen :’I think we’ll see a concentrated campaign by the Tories and their puppets in the press, to persuade the public that there is no harm in sending their children back to school at the start of June – and that anybody saying otherwise is a fool at best, and an enemy of the people at worst.’
Never underestimate the arrogance and callous stance of our wonderful fascist tory government! They are never wrong and the fact more than 55,000 women and men have now died needlessly because of fascist tory eugenics is irrelevant. Get those children back to their state schools because we fascist tories need the mothers and fathers back at work and creating more wealth for us!
And the inevitable outcome for the more sensible devolved countries will be a mad rush to the wild, better-protected tourist spots, for these infected kids’ summer holidays, by the more ignorant of the English Tory supporting hordes..