THERE are some simple questions from young children – together with their innocent answers – that can leave adults struggling to provide explanations. But when it comes to Covid, things can prove very tricky indeed. One five-year-old asks: “Did it start when a man ate a bat without washing his hands?”, while her friend explains: […]
THERE are some simple questions from young children – together with their innocent answers – that can leave adults struggling to provide explanations.
But when it comes to Covid, things can prove very tricky indeed.
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One five-year-old asks: “Did it start when a man ate a bat without washing his hands?”, while her friend explains: “If you get it, it makes your hair change colour.”
But the solution to all of this is summed up by an innocent youngster: “We just need a nice medicine to kill it.”
And today — as the UK’s top politicians, medics and economists still argue over the best way to handle the coronavirus crisis — The Sun on Sunday turned to the nation’s children for some answers.
We assembled five of our readers’ kids — aged four to seven — to get their views on everything from Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty and fitness king Joe Wicks, to lockdown hair and staying off school.
If you get coronavirus, it makes your hair change colour.
First on the agenda, what is coronavirus? Clover Cooper, seven, from Darlington, Co Durham, said: “I’m sure it’s like a cold but 100 times worse. I think it came from Japan?”
“If you don’t stay two metres apart, you would definitely get coronavirus,” Blossom Lee Watkins, seven, of South Shields, South Tyneside, added.
“You can’t touch people, that’s why people get coronavirus,” Lucas Claydon, four, of Consett, Co Durham, explained.
Four-year-old Tim Ogah, from Newcastle, disagreed. He said: “I didn’t really miss my friends at school because I was far too busy in lockdown.”
He added: “You can’t stop coronavirus because it’s too strong. We all need to be really, really careful as it takes over your body if you don’t wear a mask.”
What about the Prime Minister, the man tasked with guiding us through the pandemic?
Blossom Lee said: “I don’t like Boris Johnson because he opened up pubs before he opened up parks!”
“I don’t like him either because he’s too strict,” Clover replied.
Blossom Lee then added: “He said that no one was allowed to have haircuts and then he had a haircut!
“I think Donald Trump’s hair is worse than Boris Johnson’s, I think Boris’s is great.”
Evie Claydon, four, of Consett, Co Durham, cut in: “Everybody in my family has been shaving their hair off because they needed a haircut.
“My dad now looks like my uncle because my uncle has no hair.”
The group agreed that, unlike many adults, none of them would shave their hair off if they couldn’t get to the hairdressers.
The children then moved on to discuss the PM’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings.
“Why did he go all the way to a castle to test his eyes?” Blossom Lee asked the group.
“We just went on loads of walks in lockdown! We didn’t go very far,” Evie replied.
“I really enjoyed lockdown because of all the days off nursery.”
Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, was also brought up.
Blossom Lee: “Matt is probably a friend of Boris because he has the same clothes as him.”
“I would definitely be friends with him, because if he’s friends with Boris then I could probably go and meet Boris and talk to him,” said Clover.
“I would tell Boris to open everything up and be less strict.”
Next, the children were shown a photo of national treasure Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised £33million for the NHS by doing laps of his garden.
They instantly recognised him. Lucas said: “I don’t think Captain Tom would be able to play football with me. Well, maybe if he had his walking stick.”
Clover added: “When Captain Tom was knighted he definitely got a sword and armour.
“He must have special armour attached to his walking stick. Maybe he uses his sword as a walking stick?”
Blossom Lee said: “Maybe he’s got a magic power, where he shoots things from his walking stick?”
Evie cut in: “If I raised £40million, I would buy a flying unicorn.”
Matt is probably a friend of Boris because he has the same clothes as him.
The group were then shown a photo of Prof Whitty.
Clover jumped in straight away to say: “I have seen him on an advert on TV.
“He says ‘stay at home’ and ‘don’t go and meet people’.”
Blossom Lee wasn’t sure who he was but said: “I don’t think I would be friends with him because his eyebrows are scary.”
Evie added: “If he had brown eyebrows then people would think he was nicer.”
Clover said: “We need to glue some hair on him, because he hasn’t got much.”
Later, the children were shown a photo of fitness coach Joe Wicks.
Clover said: “He’s the person who goes on TV and does workouts and stuff.
“I would just get tired after doing his exercises though, I had to have a big glass of water afterwards.”
The children agreed that Joe’s workouts were far too early in the morning.
Most of the children missed going to school.
Clover said: “I like school, and I missed not going because my favourite subject is art because I love drawing.”
Blossom Lee said: “I think this will all be over in two weeks, I can go back to ballet then.”
She added: “You should be washing your hands twice a day, once in a morning and once at night.”
She added: “I really don’t like wearing a mask because it steams up my glasses.”
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