Schools closing for flu

[Busydoingsomething]

A school near me has partially closed due to staff shortages. Another has cancelled all performances. Some of the children will have been vaccinated but I suspect, lots of the staff won’t have been. I was listening to 2 people today, on the train, discussing whether school staff should be vaccinated, to prevent the staff being off and impacting on education. Wondering if this would be a good move.

Are they? No one with ‘flu’ that I know has been tested for covid?

The problem with vaccination of NHS staff is that whilst staff come under extreme pressure to have every vaccine going, they also come under extreme pressure to not leave their station for more than 5 minutes!

Every consultant, GP etc is vaccinated. It’s the HCAs who think they’re doctors that aren’t

DS had the flu sniff at school last Wednesday and has been off all week I know it’s influenza a because he’s given it to me and I tested myself with a LFT off amazon.
The roll out is too slow in schools IMO.

Hospital admissions are tested, which is how they know this wave is flu not covid

£4 on Amazon. I’m glad I have tested as at least I know…

I think school staff should be offered it via the NHS. I’m not school staff, but I decided to have one privately as my DF is in a care home and I visit regularly. It was really hard getting an appointment and I work part time. There were very few available in our local Boots, I ended up travelling 10 miles on my day off to Superdrug. Whereas DH gets his on the NHS and there were clinics every Saturday at the GP surgery.

@volvino that's an assumption that people will spend the money on cosmetic things but choose not to vaccinate, I don't. I literally cannot afford a vaccine, I do not have a spare £15, at all, there is no spare money in the pot at the end of the month. If I could afford the vaccine, I would. Don't assume that all people who choose not to have it could afford it. The sole reason for me not getting the vaccine whilst working in a school is cost.

Even £1.50 a month set aside from January to September would cover it.

Why don't NHS staff like having jabs I've often wondered why.

@Piggywaspushed same in our school,
a few years ago someone came in and jabbed all who wanted it, now we arrange our own and claim the cost back.

The UK Centre for disease control has an estimation of 12.000 to 52,000 deaths between 2010-2020. It also estimates 41 million illnesses and almost a million hospitalisations because of the flu virus.

I, and my whole family, have the flu vaccine for decades. My youngest (adult now) has a chronic health problem and doctors advised us to get the vaccine every year. It was a challenge giving it to our children but they coped with the jab and frankly, when their friends were coming down with colds in the school left, right and centre, they sailed thru it. I don't even remember the last time I had a bad cold.

There are too many people on social media talking about conspiracy theories about vaccine,,,, but vaccines is the reason why huge mortality rates, specially in children, have made huge impact in modern health by decreasing it,

Doctors etc do.

Admin etc aren’t medically trained in any way shape or form. I work at a hospital and we have been begged by consultants, nurses, everyone, to take it up. There’s still people in the office who say no because they think it’s “unnecessary”.

Try Asda - we’re in the Midlands and DH got a next day appointment earlier this week after getting spooked by the news.

My dc are usually vaccinated every year but this year they were offered their vaccine during their mock exams last week. I declined it because it makes them ill every year. It takes two weeks to work so they'll be almost finished for Christmas by then anyway. December is way too late to vaccinate schoolchildren.

Why?

Thr local authority I work in offers flu vouchers for all teachers. However it used to be we got them when taking a class for theirs. Now you have to apply, wait for a voucher then book an appointment at a pharmacy

Because look at the situation we’re in now.

This is now all over the news, lots of hand wringing going on. Perhaps the government need to understand that if higher rates of vaccination are what is needed then they need to provide it for free. I think £15-£20 is a lot of money for many and it’s not actually that easy to get it done. They need to at least extend who they offer it to and lower the age bracket.

As somebody who works in this field, the NHS hospitals staff figures include all the ancillary, estates etc... type staff, so can often look a little low because Trust report on their overall average. When you single out just the clinical staff, it's more like in the 80s or 90s percent-wise who get it. I'm always shocked it's not nearly 100%, but even among health professionals, you'll get the odd person who refuses. I mean, they can't refuse things like the Hepatitis jabs when they first start, so it's not like they can be anti-vax generally, or they wouldn't be able to work in hospitals at all.

Genuinely the person most at risk is me. I have severe asthma. I would love them to be vaccinated, like every other year. But we've told they can't be off during mocks under any circumstances. I've tried to pay for the vaccine privately for them in October but was told no because they should be done on the schools scheme. What am I supposed to do?

The public health messaging on vaccination for people not in the high risk groups is crap. Look at this. https://www.nhs.uk/vaccinations/flu-vaccine/

it almost implies that as a person in a non high-risk group, you don‘t need it. No clear messaging on ‚I‘m not in any of these groups, should I consider a vaccine?‘

I see why it is tricky given these groups will likely benefit but will need to pay - and maybe there are vaccine shortages or limitations that mean they don’t want a large private market? - but no wonder people are confused.

If UKHSA had taken on board the fact that flu, like COVID and RSV and measles and whooping cough and many other viruses, is transmitted through airborne means (i.e. an infected person exhales infectious viral particles, which someone else inhales and therefore gets infected), and required measures to stop airborne transmission, we probably wouldn’t be seeing such a big flu wave.

If schools and other public places like healthcare were required to take airborne mitigation measures, like:

1. Monitor CO2 levels and ensure they don’t exceed 800ppm (the sad thing is schools were issued with CO2 monitors in 2021 I think but who knows where they’ve ended up)
2. Use windows, doors, extractor fans and other means to ensure CO2 levels stay below 800ppm
3. Run HEPA purifiers to trap viral particles (and mold and PM2.5 – again, many schools were issued HEPA purifiers which they mothballed, incidentally the Dept of Education recommended pricy but ineffective Dyson purifiers instead of cheaper, more effective ones like the SmartAir Blast which is independently verified as being the quietest purifier for the most air changes per hour). And yes these work, there is real world evidence from schools that sickness absence is lower when there is clean air in classrooms, and there is also evidence that lower levels of PM2.5 in the classroom lead to higher exam scores. So it’s a win all round.
4. End the nonsensical focus on attendance above good health, forcing sick kids into school to infect everyone else. There is data from Dept of Education showing the primary driver of long term absence from school is illness. Then we would be seeing a lot less illness spreading. There is analysis out there that shows that investing in air purifiers costs less than is currently being spent on supply teachers to cover sick teachers. It’s a no brainer.

In the absence of all of the above, the best we as the general public can do is:

1. Favour well-ventilated areas
2. Mask up with a FFP2/FFP3/N95 mask that is tightly sealed to the face, no bagginess
3. Stay home when sick to avoid infecting other people.
4. Get the flu vaccine but this should have happened back in September, not now, and the NHS should not have limited coverage to those over 65 (unlike previous years) because they are paying massively for it now.

Yes it's crazy. It's not rocket science to draw up a rota and swap people in and out to cover a class for 20 minutes whilst the teacher gets their jab.