Schools banned from requiring masks unless Zahawi says otherwise

[RocketFire7]

Interesting news this morning that Nadhim Zahawi has banned schools or local public health chiefs from requiring masks without his personal approval.

Personally I think this is good news as there was a concern that individual headteachers may cause issues for political reasons.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/17385033/plan-to-stop-kids-being-back-into-masks/

Can you all please send Zahawi to have a wee word in Sturgeon's ear please as our children here have been wearing masks in schools since August 2020.

I think it is insane that schools are being forced to go against the scientific logic of trying to manage high infection rates in a pandemic by using the few mitigation measures easily available to them.

Is this the same for universities or do they set their own rules about this stuff?

I’m very happy to hear this. The most recent evidence shows there are minimal benefits to them and individual children still have the choice to wear them if they wish.

My one child's secondary is still wearing masks in class, my other child's secondary isn't.

Our school have said masks in communal areas. The kids don’t seem to mind and parents seem quite happy if it helps to keep infection rates down. Not because people are getting seriously ill. But because if too many staff test positive then we are all back to kids stuck homeschooling.

Schools will continue to implement regulations based on the risks for their individual school - normal practice. Some schools have closed classes as so many teachers are off sick with Covid.

Given the rising case numbers of primary pupils scrapping mitigation in secondary schools seems insane ... an attempt to be popular while gambling with children's health

Good for him, children shouldn't be wearing masks (and cloth ones are pretty pointless anyway).

an attempt to be popular while gambling with children's health

Gambling with children's health? By forcing them to wear masks all day? By letting them sit 3 hour mock exams with glasses steaming up?

England doesn't care about children, so it seems. Let it spread, see how it goes. Bonkers.

To be honest I don’t see masks as being particularly effective. Especially not in schools where children really don’t wear them properly.

I'd be delighted with this.
My year 8 child has had to wear a mask at some point during the school day during virtually all of their time at secondary school.
They are currently still wearing masks in the classroom, two days after the government said they should stop

I think it’s a good balance. They still have to wear in communal areas I think. Some teachers / kids may still continue to wear if they want.

@Crackingowlsanctuary

I’m very happy to hear this. The most recent evidence shows there are minimal benefits to them and individual children still have the choice to wear them if they wish.

The most recent evidence suggests that there is some real benefit to them, together with vaccination etc.

And I agree the “gamble” is now falling on the side of wearing them. That’s becoming the riskier position to adopt now in my opinion. My son can’t understand the teacher properly, can’t hear what anyone is saying, it falls down, he get shouted at for not having it etc. That’s now worse for children that a mild illness most of them have already had. My son included and he was completely fine.

The most recent evidence suggests that there is some real benefit to them

Could you please provide a link?

I've only seen evidence that is, at best, inconclusive.

I think the evidence is showing that the better grade masks , the plastic ones are good for the wearer but the cloth ones are rubbish. I think we’ve always known that to be the case.
So people can upgrade their masks if they want to continue to protect themselves but all those people wearing the blue surgical ones or nice cotton ones from Boden might as well not bother. Most kids wear the blue disposable ones or a cotton football one or similar.
That’s my understanding

That's very totalitarian shit of him.

Schools should be free to decide how they manage covid risk, including by use of masks. Obviously when there's a formal mask mandate in place they must follow it. But when there isn't they should be able to choose either way.

This is a reaction to The Telegraph having a front page article on schools which are deciding to keep masks (cases still high, as the London ripple is still moving outwards, don't want to disrupt GCSEs or have mocks on chaos etc)

But the mendacious government is desperate to have full control, even when it's utterly wrong. Next question is why - the public do not like being bullied, so it's quite a high risk approach to tell people that actually they mustn't make up their mind about local risk and must instead engage with central government (slower, and not likely to understand local factors without timewasting briefing)

If undermining HTs is an acceptable price for a sop to the U4T fringe in the parliamentary party, then it is clear to me that this is yet another example that government lacks integrity

Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30293-4/fulltext

Interpretation
The widespread reported use of face masks combined with physical distancing increases the odds of SARS-CoV-2 transmission control.

Prof Colin Davis, Bristol "Getting a lot of people telling me in replies that masks don't work, based on a BBC report of a small, inconclusive study.

Here's a much bigger study (N=20 million) by my colleagues at Bristol, sampling from 92 regions across 6 continents. "
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.16.21258817v1.full.pdf

Article explaining the important Bengal study
www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/09/masks-randomized-study-bangladesh-covid/

What's he going to do about it if schools ignore him?

@VikingVolva

That's very totalitarian shit of him.

Schools should be free to decide how they manage covid risk, including by use of masks. Obviously when there's a formal mask mandate in place they must follow it. But when there isn't they should be able to choose either way.

This is a reaction to The Telegraph having a front page article on schools which are deciding to keep masks (cases still high, as the London ripple is still moving outwards, don't want to disrupt GCSEs or have mocks on chaos etc)

But the mendacious government is desperate to have full control, even when it's utterly wrong. Next question is why - the public do not like being bullied, so it's quite a high risk approach to tell people that actually they mustn't make up their mind about local risk and must instead engage with central government (slower, and not likely to understand local factors without timewasting briefing)

If undermining HTs is an acceptable price for a sop to the U4T fringe in the parliamentary party, then it is clear to me that this is yet another example that government lacks integrity

I think it’s because their are a few activist head teachers who want to signal their activism and woke credentials by still insisting on masks. Imo it’s the head teachers that might be authoritarian! If I had a child in a school where this might be possible I’d be very pleased the government was monitoring. Schools aren’t a head teachers personal political project after all. Luckily my son’s school has already sent out a letter adhering to the guidance which I am fine with, masks in communal areas but not in the classroom itself. My son’s experience will improve immensely as he has struggled to learn in a mask, he’s also had covid, caught before Xmas from class mate whilst wearing said mask!

Maybe the headteachers are in areas of high prevalence and are indicating their knowledge of science.

If they are and have a good reason they can get permission from the government then