Masking children was a "political decision" despite a risk of harm and limited benefits, claims the children's campaign group UsForThem, which has campaigned for the UK government to discontinue the use of masks in school settings and evidenced the harm of lockdowns on kids.
Political and Union Pressures
- The initial advice under then Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020 was that "masks could impede communication between teachers and staff and have little health benefit."
- In August of that year guidance required to wear face coverings was brought in for children aged 11 and above.
- Education Secretary Gavin Williamson attends a Cabinet meeting of senior government ministers at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London, on Sept. 1, 2020. (Toby Melville
- WPA Pool / Getty Images)
- But according to the DfE evaluation document released under a Freedom Of Information Request (FOI), the first time an evaluation of the masks in-class policy was provided to the Education Minister, at that time Nadhim Zahawi, was on Dec. 30, 2021.
Driven By Politics
- Former health minister Matt Hancock suggested in his new serialised diary that the introduction of masks in classrooms was driven by politics.
- He wrote that the government was not initially intending to do that, but they ended up U-Turning because of Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Teaching Unions
- The evaluation document noted that mandating the wearing of masks in school "could help reduce the risk of some teachers invoking sec[tion] 44 of [the] Employment Rights Act" (a statutory provision that allows employees, exceptionally, to decline to work in materially unsafe conditions).
- Further measures "would likely boost confidence in the sector ahead of return and might make any use of s44 [less likely]."
- Most unions do not believe that current measures go far enough.
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