Are we sacrificing kids’ futures to protect the old?

As a Sage expert says lockdown has put children’s lives on hold...

‘ The young must take precedence over us oldies ’

YES

SCHOOLS have been closed to most pupils since March to curb the spread of coronavirus — and yet statistics show that it hardly affects the under-18s.

The majority who have died from the virus have been over 80 or already very ill. So have we needlessly sacrificed the lives and future careers of a whole generation of young people for the sake of the elderly?

I believe we have. Leading paediatrician Professor Russell Viner has said there is very little evidence of any transmission in schools and nurseries, and argues they have been shut for no good reason.

When these establishments eventually reopen for all pupils, many children will catch up. But some, sadly, won’t.

One acquaintance, for instance, has been dragging his nine-year-old son around with him on jobs. He can’t afford to home-school. Clearly this boy, and all nine-year-olds, would be better off in the classroom — but his year group has been left in limbo.

My 18-year-old granddaughter will now never take A-levels, and feels uncertain what the future might hold. She feels her life is ruined. My 15-year-old grandson — a real scamp

— spends most of his time in pyjamas playing computer games. He is due to take GCSEs next year, but who knows if that will happen?

But there is worse. Children have been cooped up with their parents, often in tiny flats with no gardens and with no outlets to let off steam. And there has been a worrying increase in domestic abuse. Since lockdown, calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline have risen by 49 per cent. For some children, school was often their only refuge.

At best, children have not been able to celebrate their birthdays, go on holiday, or do anything, really, but drive each other mad. This will result in damaged mental health for years to come, warns Professor Viner.

Frankly, 2020 has been wiped out for these kids. My grandchildren do not know of any young person who has contracted the virus. They are healthy but have been quarantined as if they carry a deadly plague.

The welfare of these youngsters, with their whole lives in front of them,

must take precedence over that of oldies like myself, who are nearing the end. Although I hope I have a little longer left, at 75 I have done pretty much all I wanted to.

This is not to say older people don’t matter — but I very much doubt that locking up the nation’s youth has saved the life of a single old person.