One of the points made by the journalist was that school children were not significant drivers of infection until Delta arrived in 202l, and that cases fell in November 20 despite schools being kept open.
I haven’t read the article as don’t subscribe to the Times but it appears that journalist is interpreting that data very selectively.
A lot of that data was because majority of pupils were only in school from September that year (and as soon as they are, a month or so later, bamb! drivers of infection.) Prior to that, majority were kept at home, so I would have thought that was the reason, not that children didn’t get infected etc.
Cases also fell in that November because there were lockdowns then tiers in most areas apart from schools, which carried on as normal. Data at that time showed the biggest age group rises where in school children. Remember that the R rate went down but not by as much as before - most likely because pupils were still mixing and adding to the numbers. It all got very messy in December and then of course January happened.
This government sticks their head in the sand about the effect schools have. They have had enough time and should have enough budget to have done something better than this ‘announcement’, by now.
And it’s appalling that school staff keep finding out on social media/msm first 