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Hello and welcome to More or Less, the show that eagerly presents its statistics homework

to teacher without even being asked, and whose dog homework consumption rate is at a steady

zero per term.

I'm Tim Halford, and this week, as schools in England and Wales return, what evidence

do we have about Covid risks in school settings?

We disentangle the numbers on contact tracing.

Will reopening the universities kill 50,000 people?

Are the UK's figures on economic growth really as bad as they look?

And when someone goes viral, asking maths questions on social media, more or less finds

the answers.

So, first.

Back to school used to be all about showing off your shiny new pencil case and forgetting

your PE kit.

This week, as pupils in England and Wales follow their Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts

in returning to school, many for the first time in more than five months, there is a rather

bigger worry for students, parents and teachers, coronavirus.

The UK's four chief medical officers have made clear that they see the overall benefits

of a return to school as far outweighing the risks to children.

So what do we know about how children are affected by Covid-19 and the risks in school

settings?

I've been speaking to Schemezler-Dani, who's a pediatric infectious disease specialist

...