Sir, – I was reassured to hear the Taoiseach state that “ . . . the emerging evidence is that among the safest things that we can do over the next couple of months is to reopen our schools and to reopen our childcare facilities to allow children to return to education and to return to normal life” (News, May 13th).
If it is true, it is a wonderful development. The reality may be somewhat different. The HIQA report that informed the Taoiseach’s pronouncement clearly states: “The five primary studies were of low to moderate quality for their design, as there was a lack of detail as to how cases were selected, what the criteria for testing contacts was, what testing was undertaken and how consistently testing was conducted across all contacts . . . .Two studies had small sample sizes . . . and three studies had not undergone peer review at the time of writing.”
It might be wiser to wait for more reliable research. – Yours, etc,
JOE McKEOWN,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – The Taoiseach says that reopening schools was “among the safest things” to do. On the same day, the Health Information and Quality Authority tells us that children are “not significant contributors” to the spread of coronavirus, in their household, or in schools.
Why then was the Minister for Education at the same time explaining to the Dáil why the Leaving Cert could not happen? If it is going to be business as usual in September because its so safe then why was the Leaving Cert not held just a few weeks earlier when a far smaller number would have been involved? –Yours, etc,
ALEX MURPHY,
Dublin 3.