Violet Affleck is clearly warning parents about the affect of Covid on children, so when will our children get finally get air filters in their schools/nurseries?

[Annemcc32]

I genuinely can't believe that the government/department for education are able to continue to ignore the now overwhelming, crystal clear evidence that Covid harms children's health. Violet Affleck gave a powerful, well documented, speech at the UN this week laying it all out and the media response? Accuse her of 'health anxiety'!
Other countries are taking action on indoor air quality to protect children in learning environments (e.g. France, Belgium, Germany, Thailand, Australia).
Bridget Philipson herself was shouting about ventilation and air filters before the election.
But still, nothing!
The department for education also had THEIR buildings upgraded so they have great indoor air quality, as did the Houses of Parliament, as do many private schools, as do DAVOS when the world leaders meet.
ALL of our children deserve clean air and to be safe in the classrooms/nurseries.
Why are we so bad at protecting our kids? Repeated Covid infections are ruining their health. ONS said in 2024 that we had over 111,000 children with long covid in Scotland and England alone.
It is SO simple to achieve this. The fact that we are doing nothing is shameful. Open the windows, get air filters, use a CO2 monitor to monitor the air. THAT IS IT. Why is that hard?

Violet Affleck most definitely called for a "mask mandate" in her speech.

I know. I don’t think we need to support everything she says. I’m just picking up on the ‘it’s just a cold’ points.

I thought she was talking about healthcare settings only, not a universal one.

If we were going for universal mask mandates (which no one is) then ventilation and HEPA filters would be almost pointless, as everyone would have their own personal filter. It's precisely because we don't want to wear masks all the time, and especially don't want children to wear masks, that we want clean air by other means. The alternative, of deciding to just not care how much we (and kids) get covid, is looking more and more like it might have been a strategic error.

How have I deduced what? I know I haven't had covid, and I know several people who have had it once - how is that "deducing" anything

The pp said "everyone" who's alive has had covid multiple times, I merely pointed out that is untrue.

Unless you have done a PCR test every week for the last 5 years then no you don’t know you haven’t had Covid.

Some people don’t get sick from Covid or even infected with it. Researchers literally stuck Covid up a bunch of peoples noses and some still didn’t test positive. They have clearly now had Covid. Literally stuffed up their nose. But it didn’t make them ill nor become infected.

I myself have never tested positive on daily LFTs. Yet was doing frequent PCRs and did come up twice on those. Never ill. Wouldn’t have known.

I agree children do deserve clean air, not just children but everyone in society.

Having Covid "stuffed up their noses" isn't necessarily going to infect them. You are talking nonsense. You even said yourself "it didn't make them ill nor become infected". If you aren't infected then you don't have Covid.

It is actually possible not to catch viruses you know.

No they literally were given Covid in lab conditions; for some their bodies reacted to protect through some kind of an innate immunity to it within the nasal passage and within their blood stream. So these people did not test positive, did not become infected in the traditional sense, and did not get ill.

It’s fascinating and maybe that is you. But that’s a shrinkingly small number of people. So much so they have sought them out to do testing on them. It doesn’t mean they ‘havent had Covid’. They literally were GIVEN Covid. And they measured the bodily response to see how it differed.

I would super suprised if you havent had Covid. I cant prove it. But if you really havent then your practically a science experiment right now and maybe should go and offer yourself for testing. It would be exceedingly rare and potentially you hold the answer to Covid!

You can also do antibodies tests. Specifically these need to be for N protein (as that’s the only protein showing natural as opposed vaccine antibodies).

Waaaah! Its vascular!!!!

Sorry, had to get that in.

I agree that in general, better cleaner air circulation would be a good thing. Not driven by COVID specifically, but by air quality and airborne pathogens in general when talking about close spaces.

But yes, she comes across as a mad Covidian.

I'm afraid no matter how many Covid related threads you frantically
post the same message on, it will not change material reality.
Research has established that COVID-19 is a multi-systemic disease, and many of its effects are indeed vascular, with endothelial dysfunction being a primary one.
Perhaps if you get in touch with some of the relevant scientists and use enough exclamation marks, you can convince them to retract their research? It'd certainly give them a laugh.

If you read my reply. It said in a very basic nutshell

of course it’s much more complex. As I previously stated.

The covid inquiry yesterday showed how government knew cases of long covid in children would rise rapidly.

This thread is really reminding me of how Covid brought out the worst in people at the beginning. Evidently for some it still does.

Missing out that repeatedly battering your immune system, with viruses that attack the body, is a really plan, is not describing anything in “a very basic nutshell”. It’s misleading.

Violet Affleck asked for mask
mandates in healthcare only.

Healthcare is where our most vulnerable members of society can’t avoid going. They should be safe.

She asked for clean air everywhere.

I honestly don’t understand the uproar. All I can think is that the health anxiety is not her’s.

What schools (or homes) have air filtration in the first place? Don’t you just open windows??? Unless it’s super modern with air conditioning they are heated by radiators, nowhere to put hepafilters. That young lady is living in the USA where air conditioning is common and nobody opens windows, she’s also got no qualifications in the subject

schools are on their knees. We can’t even afford to get our walls repainted, let alone air filters. We were promised extra money, so where is it? I have covid again, not because we don’t have air filters, but because parents send their children in to school, knowing they have covid. The biggest threats to children’s lungs are wood burners in the home, air pollution and vaping!

Fewer parents would send children to school with covid if they weren't so often expected to go to work with it themselves, which would be more likely if we accepted that actually it is worse than a cold. While it's treated as if it doesn't matter, nothing will be done to limit spread and staff such as teachers will keep falling ill.

HEPA filters won't completely solve the problem but could reduce the amount of virus in the air significantly. Given the cost of supply teachers, surely less illness would save money?

Schools are on their knees. This is true and a reflection of how little education and children really matter to governments. How can schools continue to accommodate increasing levels of illness and absence in teachers? As more children become ill, with longer term health issues also increasing, is that helpful to pressures on schools? Relying on goodwill and mandating higher and higher levels of inschool illness, whilst messed up, also come at a cost.

All those organisations and governments that addressed indoor air quality for themselves in 2020. DfE is another department that has addressed indoor air for itself.

Labour kept saying how important ventilation and filtration were in schools - they’ve “forgotten” that now they’re in charge. The need to address ventilation was in government documentation referred to in covid inquiry this week.

There will be children, teachers and parents who will develop health issues today as a result of these crackpot policies. How do we keep affording that?

NY Times yesterday:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/health/long-covid-children.html

This is the paper they are talking about:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(25)00476-1/fulltext

There is a difference between thinking that HEPA filters in draughty schools are not a priority and dismissing Covid as a non-event.

Well draughty schools are less of an issue to be fair! It's the airtight ones that need the filters the most

I do agree though, if as a society we ever agree that covid is worth avoiding that doesn't mean we'll necessarily end up with HEPA filters as the best way of cleaning the air in every single location. Although Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are pretty cheap so could be good in winter when it's harder to open all the windows in schools.

We won't know what's best for any individual school till we actually take seriously the idea of protecting kids from getting covid too often, and then look locally at what can be done.

Exactly this. The arguments re money are nonsense. Sickness costs way more and its only going to get worse. We can't afford NOT TO clean the air. Also agree re stay home when sick and support people to do this.

She was speaking with scientists. She hadn't just barged in. Scientists clever enough to know that a well known name speaking their science, counts for more and will get more coverage than the science alone. A sad state of affairs perhaps, but a lot more people are talking about it because she bravely put her name to it. It wasn't an Violet Affleck opinion peace though, it was rooted in science.

@Figur Parliament has filtered air, yes, but DfE's offices don't have any filtration beyond the standard air conditioning/heating. I work for them so can say for sure this isn't the case! I wish we did, it would stop a lot of the horrible winter illnesses people bring into the office despite hybrid working being a thing - people could stay home when ill, and they don't.

Interestingly, Bridget Phillipson was pushing for clean air in schools when she was in opposition. As soon as Labour got into power and she became SoS for Education, she said nothing. Funny that.