Dear Minister Foley,
I note the guidelines for reopening schools from your Department. These appear to be based on old, and now outdated, public health advice. In my judgement, there is a sizable risk of major outbreaks of COVID-19 associated with school reopening, and associated illness and deaths, affecting staff, children and their families. In the absence of every effort to mitigate these risks, my view is that you and your Department would be directly responsible for these.
I urge you to require that your Department adopt and implement evidence based guidelines such as this in the attached document, before schools reopen.
Yours sincerely.
Anthony Staines (on behalf of ISAG)
Professor of Health Systems, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy, and Community Health,
Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland.