The government is throwing the kitchen sink at the booster programme in an attempt to offset sharply increasing Covid-19 infection rates as the Omicron variant surges across the country. In a televised address, Boris Johnson last night announced that every adult over 18 will be offered a booster jab by the end of December, which means reaching 18 million in just 17 days. Military planners are to be deployed, a volunteer army called up and routine NHS operations suspended to focus on this massive national effort. It is the right response to this latest threat to public health.
Yet the reality is that it may not be enough, given the extraordinary levels of transmissibility of this new variant. Whatever the opposition of Conservative MPs, it seems inevitable that by next month Britain will again be faced with the unenviable choice of what new curbs must be placed on daily life. Scientists are already pointing to the high levels of infection among students and school pupils. And the pressure will grow on universities and schools to keep their doors shut after the winter break. This must not happen.
The closure of all schools at the start of the pandemic in March last year seemed at the time sensible and unavoidable. It is only now that the terrible cost of this shutdown is becoming apparent. Studies by the British Medical Association, by Ofsted, government bodies and parliamentary committees have shown that the educational and psychological effects of confining children to their homes were deeper, more divisive and more destructive of opportunity than anyone imagined.
Surveys have shown that about 70 per cent of school children of all ages experienced changes in their emotional wellbeing. More than half showed altered routines. More than 60 per cent experienced sleep problems. Over the past 20 months, various agencies have reported increases in risky behaviour, violence, anxiety, depression, stress, feelings of helplessness and prolonged psychological damage. Child abuse and cruelty at home have risen alarmingly.
The effects were not equally spread: those from affluent backgrounds coped better, were more able to benefit from distance learning and lessons on screen and were better supported at home. Those from poorer backgrounds fell far behind: many did not follow whatever remote education teachers were able to provide, did not hand in work prescribed, had no quiet place in which to study and were left to their own devices by parents barely coping with lay-offs, the loss of family income and the claustrophobia of living in cramped homes.
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With the return to classrooms last September, some effort was made to help schools catch up. These, though often praiseworthy, have fallen far short of what was first hoped. There has been almost no extra money for intensive tuition for those preparing for exams. Proposals for a longer school day, summer classes or an extended school year have faced opposition from teaching unions and parents unable to adjust their work schedules. Schooling was further disrupted by requirements for schools to isolate pupils in bubbles, and send home whole classes if a single case was discovered.
This time all possible measures must be taken to keep schools open, including masks in class, vaccines for the young and timetable variations. Whatever other restrictions are needed, students and pupils cannot afford another lockdown.