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?

Years ago there was evidence that children living in overly bleached homes were far more susceptible to germs outside the house and more likely to catch more viruses.

hospitals don’t use filters on wards so I’m not sure why schools should. (Hospitals do in theatre).

Absolutely this.

Covid is a virus. Not bacteria.

Right so we need to sterilise the air now. Says who and why do they get to decide?

Yes. And you can also get long Covid from a very mild infection or even an asymptomatic infection…

Agree!!

why don’t you do some fundraising? Get the kids to get involved. Get the parents involved!

don’t wait for them to do it. Be proactive

It's not that we need to sterilise the air, it it's that we should be removing from it the worst pathogens and pollutants that do the most harm to people. Just as we do with water - in fact just as we already do with air for some pathogens and pollutants (no indoor smoking, no asbestos...).

The only thing that's "new" is that although we've been told that covid isn't a particularly harmful pathogen and it's fine to ignore it, the research is increasingly showing that's not the case, and it should be on the list of things we at least try to remove, or reduce.

This.

for example allergies are getting higher because we’re too sterile. This is in a very very basic nutshell obviously.

No, it was the Houses of Parliament.

But, respectfully, you still missed my point.

You won’t eradicate infections with HEPA filters. The point is that it’s not about eradicating, it’s about minimising infections. And that the people making decisions about (not) minimising risks for YOUR children, are quietly minimising risks for their own.

Their classrooms won’t be cramped either. Eton also has filters btw.

And you’re right, it is moot. Because so many parents are happy to consider it moot.

The government will only look to reduce infections and be open about the harms of COVID when it’s cheaper for them to reduce infections than it is for them to encourage them (or due to public pressure which clearly won’t happen). Think of the costs to the economy if people started to avoid infections.

Globally there are HUNDREDS of trials to develop vaccines. Why? Where is the motivation? The money for this? You don’t have to look far for why - the harms are well documented, the sources are reputable and the evidence extensive - it’s all easy to find online.

And the damage is cumulative. Being okay once, doesn’t mean you will be next time.

Historians will have difficulty working out why people were so happy to keep catching it!

Have you seen the smoking room experiment? I’ve linked below but it can easily be found with a google. It sums up what’s happening re covid. Group think is so strong. People take comfort from others decisions and mumsnet poll results, to the point where they won’t do their own research.

But advertising / awareness campaigns are strong too but that could be 5/10/15 years off.

And does Violet Affleck know the location of the magic money tree?

You’re completely
muddling good bacteria and harmful viruses. Be outside more, yes. Have pets. Catching harmful viruses = bad. Covid is causing immune damage - look up covid and immune damage.

So well put, thank you

We open the windows daily. Keeps the house fresh, and helps prevent damp.

I agree, I really don’t understand that attitude that you can’t possibly open the windows in winter in the UK.
We open them all year round, hate stuffy rooms. They don’t need to remain open for long.

(re iphone block)

Weird. ResearchGate is boring not dodgy.

Original article is also on BMJ website. Hopefully iphone won't block that.

Article title is "Effect of portable HEPA filters on COVID-19 period prevalence: an observational quasi-interventional study in German kindergartens" if you want to google for the title.

HEPA filters trap all particles over a certain size, including viral particles. We've known this for a long time. https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/air-filters-on-wards-remove-almost-all-airborne-covid-virus/

It's depressing that so many people on this thread would rather risk their children's health than accept the copious evidence that COVID causes long term harm (however mild the initial symptoms) and try to do something to protect their children's health. So easy to label someone as having "health anxiety" when actually they are following the science. Infection is NOT good for immune systems. Especially not COVID infections which are proven to harm immune systems, like measles can too.

Here is a small compilation of evidence: https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/air-filters-on-wards-remove-almost-all-airborne-covid-virus/

And for those of you who actually want to keep your children safer from infection, here are some helpful websites:

https://www.covidsafetyforschools.org/
Includes resources for school admins and general population

https://www.cleanairforkids.co.uk/ included resources like template letters to MPs

Good on Violet Affleck and all the experts who spoke at the UN on this topic and brought it the publicity it sorely needs.

It’s so depressing to see people target people that are informing themselves and then speaking up. To their own detriment.

And it seems that everyone attacking her is both anonymous and without any science backing them up. I suspect without even a cursory look at all the science out there.

A really sad state of affairs.

You might be able to find what Max Pemberton psychologist says about violet Affleck..

I’m just after the science about Covid. Like I said, the personal attacks are hideous so no, I have not interest.

https://www.panaccindex.info/p/answered-is-covid-19-harmful-to-children?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

This is just a selection. You can go to the COVID research repository and there's over 450,000 papers,you'll be hard pressed to find a paper that says infection is good for you. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research/coronavirus/

HEPA filters will never cut infection 100% but they can cut long-range infection as summarised here from a CDC study. Also studies exist from Italian schools and Finnish days cares off the top of my head. Certainly they aren't going to do any harm since they also remove pm2.5 (a pollutant which has been shown to have a negative effect on exam performance) mold and pollen.
https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/hepa-air-purifiers-reduce-classroom-covid-19/?srsltid=AfmBOorjSyXKG9TkRI_T_ricN2ECD7Iw4UCi6eX5BHUFquMeBSWhutZy (yes Smartair sell top-rated filters for schools as they are powerful and silent, and offer better value than Dysons for example, but this blog links a CDC study).

Assuming she’s right, and I’ve spent zero seconds looking in that, what is your plan to achieve it? How much of a price increase do you propose nursery fees have added to them to pay for this and are you willing to pay it? What do schools remove from their already broken budgets to fund it, perhaps increase the class size of your children, if so too what extent is acceptable to you?

Typcial MN sh1te with whining nonsense and no actual sense added.

It’s not in anyone’s interests to bash people for speaking up. Especially with no scientific counter argument.

To be honest, I don’t engage in covid chats much anymore, because people don’t want to hear it. The group think and the desire to ignore is too strong. I think things will change but quite a bit in the future.

We've built up a lower risk, but still full happy, life instead of trying to change things. So selfishly I generally ignore it and just go about a lower risk life.

Speaking about covid how Violet and others are is brave. There are alternatives to what is happening now. We should be grateful to people standing up, and forgetting about Covid, doesn’t living in a world where people are listened to and science respected seem like a good idea?

Think I’ve said my bit, nice to see people still with some energy (and so much more eloquence than me) still speaking up.

It is not a fucking cold, for crying out loud. I'm getting so sick of this nonsense being parroted, presumably by people who did their fair share of spreading back in the day if they've been practising this level of denial all along.

“Zero seconds looking into that” kind of voids your response for me. Nanight.

MPs fitted the Houses of Parliament with air purification systems. The WHO HQ in Geneva used the first lockdown to install air purification and improved ventilation to combat "airborne disease" all whilst denying to the public that COVID is airborne.

https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/freedom-of-information/information-we-already-publish/house-of-commons-publication-scheme/buildings-and-maintenance/air-filtration-system-2023/

WHO back to campus memos screenshots https://x.com/mdc_martinus/status/1787927729557406006

Davos has prominent air purifiers in many photos. We've seen photos of King Charles at Buckingham palace with an air purifier in the background (a Dyson though, so more about looks than effectiveness).