The news that UK schools are choosing to shut down in the light of the latest flu outbreak is leading to a depressing sense of déjà vu. That’s not only among parents suddenly faced with the prospect of finding childcare for perfectly healthy children, but also among those of us who hoped that society might have learned at least some lessons from the disastrous policies of the Covid era.

Winter viruses are nothing new. It is perfectly reasonable for teachers or pupils with flu symptoms to stay at home, and schools should cope with these absences as best they can. There may be situations where a particular school has little choice but to shut down, such as if an unsustainable number of teachers are off sick and it proves impossible to arrange suitable cover. But this should be a last-ditch move when there really is no alternative.

That is very different, however, from whole-school closures being used as a public health policy aimed at preventing the spread of infection. At a minimum, before even considering such an approach, we need solid evidence both that there are significant benefits and that they outweigh the likely costs, not least from thousands of healthy pupils having their education interrupted.

The argument sometimes goes that school closures are necessary as part of the precautionary principle. But this gets things the wrong way round: we know for certain the high costs of closures in terms of education loss, while the benefits from infection control are uncertain at best. For example, a number of studies have found that school closures had little if any impact on infections or mortality. The precautionary principle would suggest that school closures should be seen as an extreme measure, only to be used in truly exceptional and unavoidable circumstances.

Even worse, it’s not just closures. There are reports that some schools are introducing random policies such as cancelling singing in assemblies despite a lack of evidence that such measures will have any significant impact on spreading infection. And — surprise, surprise — the UK Health Security Agency is encouraging people to wear masks in public again, even though the gold-standard academic research shows little evidence of their effectiveness in preventing the spread of respiratory infections.

How have we ended up in a situation where school closures, lockdowns and masks are increasingly seen as a normal response to seasonal infection? The language being used is revealing. There is talk of school “lockdowns” and “firebreaks” — terms which directly mimic Covid policy. At least part of the blame should be laid at the door of politicians, scientists and the public-health establishment, all of whom still refuse to take responsibility for their failures during Covid. Nowhere is this more obvious than with the UK Covid Inquiry, which refused even to question the effectiveness of extreme infection responses such as school closures.

Until we take seriously the need to learn lessons from Covid-era policy failures, it seems that we are doomed to repeat them.

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David Paton is a Professor of Industrial Economics at Nottingham University Business School.

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