Keith Massey (Letters, May 20) is all for getting children back to school. He says there may be some, but acceptable, risk.

A Public Health definition of acceptable risk states this as the degree to which the probability of suffering disease or injury is viewed as being reasonable by an individual or society in exchange for certain benefits.

Acceptability of risk depends on scientific data; social, economic and political factors; and on the perceived benefits. It does not seem to me that the risk of contracting Covid19 can be viewed as reasonable just to get children back to school and parents back to work, which is surely what this is about.

We should look at France: it has reported 70 cases of coronavirus linked to schools just a week after they reopened. French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanque said that the return had put some children in new danger of infection and that the affected schools were being closed immediately while seven schools in northern France have already closed. This is after France reopened 40,000 preschools and primary schools last week, with classes capped at 15 students.

Is this the kind of ‘acceptable risk’ we need just now? I think not.

Dave Platt,

Keepers Way, Dunnington,York