Nursery World - Coronavirus: SAGE scientist - decision to keep nurseries open 'may be political'

A leading virologist, who sits on Sage, has said that there is no scientific rationale for the Government in keeping early years settings open, when schools and universities have been closed 'on the grounds of public health'.

Early years settings in England remain open to all children

BBC Breakfast interviewed Professor Calum Semple, a virologist and member of Sage (the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies), who when asked if he could give any idea why early years settings were remaining open when schools were not, said ‘No, I can't’, and said that the decision to do so may be ‘political’ as it was not ‘a scientific one’.

Professor Semple said, ‘The reality is that, under these circumstances every opportunity to remove social mixing and work mixing of human beings is vitally important.

‘So, if a political decision has been made here to keep nurseries open in order to keep essential staff at work then that could be tempered by restricting the nursery capacity to those essential workers. But if we’ve gone to the point of closing the universities, secondary schools and primary schools on the grounds of public health, then I would be looking to close all other non-essential activities. And it may be that a political decision has been made here that nurseries are essential, but it’s not a scientific one.’

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