Not reopening schools next month, says Boris Johnson, would be “socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible”. The harm done to children’s prospects and mental health would be “far more damaging” than any risk from the virus. When a politician takes refuge in morality we dive for cover. If he now says that a policy he has pursued obsessively for four months harms the prospects and mental health of children, it was bad policy. Other countries measured the same risk and thought to minimise it by cautiously reopening schools sooner, which also benefitted working parents.

Source: The Guardian August 10, 2020 13:18 UTC