You would think teachers’ unions would want to heed science and re-open schools

WE’VE heard it all now from the teachers’ unions.

You’d think they would be keener than anyone to heed the science.

PA:Press Association

Teachers’ unions are refusing to mark homework in case members catch Covid from a book[/caption]

But when Government experts or even the WHO contradict their desire to keep schools shut, they ignore it.

Or they wheel out the BMA — as if it represented medical opinion, rather than just being another left-wing trade union.

Their latest wheeze, part of an absurd dossier of 12 demands, is to refuse to mark homework in case members catch Covid from a book.

The risk is minuscule . . . nil, if they take precautions.

Most primary kids the Government wants to return on June 1 get minimal homework anyway.

And, as Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam says, they neither catch the disease severely nor pass it on like they do flu.

It is impossible to ensure that teachers will be 100 per cent safe before they return — as it is for any worker.

There WILL be a statistically tiny threat as long as this disease persists. Life is full of them. This is another.

Unions cannot demand an exemption.

DAMAGE TO PUPILS

This protracted shutdown is already doing immense damage to pupils, especially the most disadvantaged.

The truth is the unions are capitalising on a mainly middle-class reluctance to return to work because many have lost perspective about the real risk.

In fairness, that reflects the success of the Government’s “stay home” campaign.

But now deaths and infections are falling steadily and the economy is in dire trouble we must shift gear.

Publishing daily figures of Covid recoveries will help.

Not least because the total will be in the millions, as opposed to the death toll of 34,796.

Awful though that latter figure is, it remains a small fraction of the overall.

So does the recent estimate of those now infected: some 148,000 in England, of a population of 56,000,000.

Only one in 400 has Covid, in some areas far less.

The fact we can now test everyone with symptoms, and have 21,000 contact tracers, should drive even those figures down.

Teachers, meantime, should ponder whether their unions have lost the plot.

Job’s picking up

WE welcome Prince Charles’s call for anyone currently furloughed to help rescue our farmers by picking vital fruit and veg.

PA:Press Association

Prince Charles has called for anyone currently furloughed to help rescue our farmers by picking vital fruit and veg[/caption]

We welcome, too, that you’ll get paid on top of your bailout cash.

Sign up today — and help feed Britain through our worst crisis since the war.

The sun saves

IF fruit picking isn’t your bag, you can do your bit for public health just by sunbathing.

Getty Images - Getty

Lack of vitamin D is linked to the more severe coronavirus bouts so time to soak up the sun[/caption]

Lack of vitamin D is linked to the more severe coronavirus bouts.

And you can top that up by exposure to sunshine in what looks like being a glorious week.

We’ve always said The Sun’s good for you.

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