In the Scotsman today by Cumbrian, Joseph Anderson (above):

Leaked Matt Hancock messages: Scottish Government forced to defend schools face mask policy

The Scottish Government has defended its decision to force school children to wear masks in classrooms, after leaked messages revealed the UK Government was advised there was “no strong argument” in favour.

A trove of whatsapp messages from former UK health secretary Matt Hancock, leaked to the Telegraph by journalist and anti-lockdown campaigner Isabel Oakeshott, show that Westminster politicians decided to advise that children wear masks in schools after agreeing it was “not worth an argument” with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon over the issue.

The guidance was issued despite the UK Government being advised there was no reason for mandating that school children wear face masks.

https://www.scotsman.com/health/leaked-matt-hancock-messages-scottish-government-forced-to-defend-schools-face-mask-policy-4048535

Forced to defend? Not worth an argument with Nicola?

What? Like with Indyref2, the Gender Recognition Reforms, the Minimum Unit Pricing and now the Deposit Return Scheme?

Hmmm.. Westminster politicians seemed pretty happy to have an argument over anything where they think that might have undermined Sturgeon.

What would be to defend? This below?

From a US study published in March 2022:

Mandatory masking in schools reduced COVID-19 cases

These findings show that school masking remains a critical preventive measure in times with high community infection rates, as we observed with Omicron, or if a variant emerges that escapes immunity.https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/mandatory-masking-schools-reduced-covid-19-cases

How many lives did following Sturgeon save? Compliance across all pandemic measures was higher in Scotland and the Covid death rate, in Scotland at 226.8 per 100K was much lower than that in England at 310.9 per 100K.

Remember that means 75 people per 100K, 4 050 in Scotland, might have died or, in England, 42 000 might have been saved if the two governments’ strategies were swapped.