TY - JOUR T1 - Our children are sitting ducks JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 172 LP - 172 DO - 10.3399/bjgp22X719117 VL - 72 IS - 717 AU - Louise Hyde Y1 - 2022/04/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/72/717/172.abstract N2 - Children are not meant to die, so when people say the risk of a child dying of COVID-19 is very small, then yes, it absolutely should be. Unfortunately, we’ve been letting it spread quite freely in the UK, especially through schools. My child probably won’t die of COVID-19, and yours probably won’t either, but in the next few days, someone’s child might. We actively take precautions to prevent all of the commonest causes of child death, both as individuals and collectively. Suffocation causes similar numbers of deaths to COVID-19, but no responsible parent would leave plastic bags lying about, and almost all bags come with little holes punched in the bottom, and a written reminder to keep out of reach of children.When it comes to COVID-19, though, the measures we had in place through the first two waves have largely been removed. Most adults in the UK are protected by at least two doses of vaccine, but most children are not. Masks stopped being required in English secondary schools in May 2021, at roughly the same time that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) were concluding that there was a low risk of child-to-child transmission. Measures such as bubbles, distancing, and isolation … ER -