Children return to classrooms in England from today following the one week half-term holiday. Tens of thousands of COVID cases are continuing to rip through schools and the entire population.

On Saturday, the UK passed the milestone of 9 million infections (9,019,962), with around 40,000 people a day infected daily. This means that over 13.1 percent of the entire population have been infected with COVID.

The number of deaths in Britain flowing from the Conservative government’s herd immunity policy is horrific. According to Office for National Statistics (ONS), 165,213 people had died by October 15 with COVID-19 listed on their death certificate. This equates to one in 400 people killed due to COVID so far in Britain.

Due to deaths since October 15, the fatality rate is now even higher. On October 27, retired lawyer Fionna O'Leary tweeted that the 1,221 deaths since then means, “We have finally crossed the unthinkable 1/400 barrier. 1 in every 398 United Kingdom citizens dead of Covid.”

Despite 86.8 percent of the population having been vaccinated with two doses, the vaccination programme has virtually ground to a halt under conditions in which immunity to the virus is rapidly waning. By October 29, just 13.2 percent of the population aged 12+ have received a (booster/third dose).

The vaccine rollout among children was delayed for months after the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) decided against recommending vaccinating almost all under-18s.

Documents leaked last Friday reveal that the JCVI made this decision to deliberately infect masses of children, falsely claiming that “Circulation of covid in children could periodically boost immunity in adults.” Schools could return with no mitigations in place, with minutes from a May 13, 2021 meeting of the JCVI also falsely claiming, under a section headed “arguments against vaccination include”, that “Children rarely develop severe disease or die of COVID-19; even children with underlying comorbidities have a very low risk”.

By the time the government—under mounting pressure from concerned parents and educators—made the decision that some school age groups, excluding those under 12, should be vaccinated the entire summer period had been lost. The vaccine programme among 12–15-year-olds was finally rolled out in late September, but it has been marked by chaos, reaching only a fraction of pupils. Only 19.3 percent of 12-15 year-olds have been vaccinated, according to a UK Health Security Agency estimate. Over 40 percent of schools had not received the single vaccine for their pupils by half term.

The full reopening of the economy on July 19, following by the reopening of schools and then college and university campuses, has allowed the disease to spread freely.

July 19 was dubbed “Freedom Day” by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. By then, according to the government’s figures—recording deaths that occurred within 28 days of a positive test—there had already been 129,007 deaths. In just the three months from July 19 to October 27, there have been well over 11,000 more deaths (11,620). By July 19, 5.5 million Britons had been infected with COVID. On Sunday that figure stood at 9,057,629 million, a staggering rise of more than 3.4 million cases just over 100 days. In just the seven days to October 30, another 1,097 deaths were recorded in Britain.

Schools have been the main vector for the disease since their reopening in August and September. ONS data published October 29 found that one in 25 primary age children and one in 11 secondary pupils are currently infected. This is a significant increase in both age groups, with ONS data from October 8 finding that one in 33 primary age children and one in 12 secondary pupils were infected.

Over a thousand school children have been hospitalised in the few weeks since schools went back. On October 29, Professor Christina Pagel, the director of University College London's clinical operational research unit, tweeted, “There have been 1,203 hospital admissions in 6-17 year olds with Covid since 1 Sept 2021. Previous research showed that about 80% of those are *because* of Covid & 58% in children with no other health conditions.”

In the face of warnings from concerned scientists at a worsening public health catastrophe, the mouthpieces of the ruling class are demanding they be silenced once and for all.

Andrew Lilico, a columnist for the Tory Party’s house organ, the Telegraph, declared in an article Friday, “Lockdown fanatics should be ashamed of themselves.”

Congratulating the government on its homicidal policy, Lilico commented, “The government estimates are that nearly 80 per cent of children have now had Covid and about 6-7 per cent are newly infected per week. That means that the virus has all but run out of children to infect and cases among children will crash—according to the latest data they are falling at a rate of about 40 per cent per week. Children constituted half of recent cases. So chldren’s [sic] cases crashing means total cases will fall rapidly.” He forecasts, “Hospitalisations will fall, too, as boosters eliminate most of the residual serious disease risk for the elderly.”

Declaring that “the epidemic is over, [deliberately avoiding describing it as a pandemic], Lilico added casually, “Maybe other things might threaten our health soon. A new flu epidemic is a possibility. Covid will become endemic, after a bumpy transition over the next year or so. Tens of thousands of people will catch it every day, for ever. All of us will get it many times.”

Across the political spectrum, there is unanimity behind the herd immunity agenda, with apologias coming thick and fast. The BBC’s health correspondent Nick Triggle consistently endorses herd immunity. In February, he wrote as the government stepped up its propaganda that everyone had to “live with COVID… This is simply about being realistic. Covid isn’t something that can be eradicated like smallpox was… Thousands will still die in winters to come. But each year this should lessen until it gets near to the levels of mortality we see with flu—something which society readily accepts.” He followed up with another piece headlined, “Why goal is to live with the virus—not fight it”.

Last week Triggle noted the widespread infection of children with barely disguised approval, writing, “In the most recent week, nearly half of cases have been in the under-20s,” i.e., mainly children.

“This has happened with relatively little spillover into older age groups. Once the virus had passed through these groups, who after all were the people least protected by the vaccine, there was always going to be a drop-off in infection levels because of the high levels of natural immunity acquired.”

On October 22, the science editor of the nominally liberal Guardian also solidarised with those in ruling circles celebrating the mass infection of children. Ian Sample, in an article, “Deep within the UK’s shocking Covid data, there may be reasons for optimism,” wrote, “Nearly 1,000 hospital admissions a day, and nearly 1,000 deaths a week? … But delve into the data and there are, perhaps, some reasons for optimism.”

He continued, “With so many adults well protected after vaccination, infection, or both, the primary driver for the UK epidemic is the infection rate among schoolchildren… The ONS estimates that for the week ending 9 October, 8.1% of children in school years 7 to 11 would have tested positive for coronavirus.”

None of this is of any great concern to Sample, who explains that it’s really cause for “optimism”: “This equates to about 5% becoming infected every week and adding to the pool of the immune. Before schools went back after the summer, a substantial minority of children in London may have had antibodies to the virus. With natural infections building on that immunity for weeks, cases may soon start to fall.”

Indeed, everyone can benefit from herd immunity because “since schoolchildren are seeding infections into the community, national cases may follow suit.”

What is being advocated, almost two years into a global pandemic, can only be described as social murder. The impact of this sadistic policy on children has been brutal. Last week COVID claimed its 101st child’s life in Britain. This death is on top of the more than 9,000 children hospitalised, 53,000 who are suffering Long COVID and at least 8,000 who have been orphaned.